In Birim North District, AkromaGold Ltd starts an effort to restore mined areas

In order to reclaim mined areas in the Birim North District, AkromaGold Limited, a sizable mining operation situated in Ghana’s Eastern Region, has started an operation.

The activity is a part of the company’s proactive attempts to stop a repetition of the Obuasi incident, in which several illegal miners were trapped down a mining shaft of the Anglogold Ashanti Obuasi mines after they entered the company’s concessions.

The crew unexpectedly showed up at the site with the necessary equipment, surprising the more than 1,500 locals who had trespassed onto the company’s Noyem site and were actively engaged in illegal mining.

The illegal miners begged the company to give them some time to bring out their loads (gold sand), and the company agreed to give them an hour before the exercise started. These miners, who were men and women, young and old, had entered the mine shaft, connected electricity down the shaft, and were using explosives to blast the underground rocks.

In an interview with Citi News, Emmanuel Mintah, Deputy Director of Operations at AkromaGold Limited, who oversaw the exercise, stated that the firm was taking preemptive measures to prevent a repeat of the Obuasi disaster, in which several workers became trapped in a mining shaft.

He disclosed that the firm had experienced an event at Wusiwusi in which a 14-year-old girl perished in a mining pit as a result of some illegal miners breaking into the company’s concession and abandoning the hole after mining.

Wusiwusi is home to a concession that is also owned by our sister firm, Akroma. An attempt was made by a 14-year-old girl to take a shortcut to school while it was pouring, but sadly, unlicensed miners who had arrived to engage in illicit activity failed to cover the mining hole, and the girl fell in and perished.

“Even though we weren’t the ones mining on that concession, as a firm, we were held accountable for it. We thus don’t want any of these problems to recur. We are acting proactively right now because of this, he said.

According to Mr. Mintah, illicit mining operations are concerning because they not only devastate the environment but also make it very challenging to reclaim the area.

He pleaded with the locals to help the corporation in its endeavours to recover the mined lands.