Operations of mining companies have mostly degraded the environment

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Ghana Mineworkers Union

The Ghana Mineworkers?Union (GMWU) of the Trade?Union Congress (TUC) has advocated?the establishment of a mining?communities? development?fund by the government to help?accelerate the development of host?communities.

Ghana Mineworkers Union?The Ghana Mineworkers?Union wishes to re-echo two proposals?it has since 2010 lobbied?and advocated for on many platforms,??Sampson Agyapong,?Research Officer of the Union said?at a national mining forum at?Obuasi.

The forum, which was attended?by a cross?section of stakeholders?in the mining industry made?up of mining communities, civil?society organisations, government?officials, mining companies and?the general public, was organised?by the National Coalition on Mining?(NCOM).

It afforded the stakeholders an?opportunity to discuss the intended?closure of the Obuasi Mine by?AngloGold Ashanti and place the?mine on ?care and maintenance???regime for two years.

Mr Agyapong said the fund?should be different from the current?royalty system into which 25?percent of all mining receipts to?government from the communities?would be lodged, adding ?this?fund, when established, will be?the catalyst around which the?community development would?revolve.?

He called for public private?partnership in the mining sector to?target the Ghanaian private sector,?as the current situation whereby?the formal large scale sub-sector of?the industry was completely?owned by foreign capital was
unsustainable.

Sulemanu Koney, Acting Chief?Executive Officer of the Ghana?Chamber of Mines, advocated the passage of the Minerals?Development Fund Bill which was expected to align government?s?expenditure of a proportion of mineral revenue?to the developmental aspirations of host communities.

He said the draft bill, which was being considered by?the Attorney General?s Department, would link mineral?revenue expenditure to the provision of physical infrastructure,?whose benefits would be enduring and encompassing.

Mr Koney noted that the chamber had made overtures?to the government to increase the proportion of mineral?royalty returned to the host mining communities from the?prevailing nine percent to 30 percent.

?Our position is predicated on the inability of the District?Assemblies to undertake any meaningful development?project with their share of the royalty revenue,? he?said.

In a statement, the National Coalition on Mining called?on government to make full disclosure about the extent to?which AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) had met the terms under?which it (government) agreed with the multinational to?take over former Ashanti Goldfields Company.

Richard Ellimah, Executive Director of Centre for?Social Impact Studies (CeSIS) and member of the Coalition,?who read the statement, appealed to government to?publicly clarify its position on AGA?s closure plans.

The Coalition further called on the government to?involve other stakeholders, including civil society groups?in discussions relating to AGA?s proposals to close the?Obuasi Mine for a period of two years.

?GNA

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