Kweku Asomah-Cheremeh
The
chiefs and people of the Gbane Traditional Area in the Talensi District of the
Upper East Region have petitioned Lands and Natural Resources Minister Kweku Asomah-Cheremeh
to revoke the mining licence of Cassius Mining Limited.
In
a petition addressed to the minister, the residents and traditional leaders
expressed concerns over what they claimed to be some unhealthy developments in
the mining community which they respectfully proffer some measures to be
adopted to cure the challenges.
“It
is the larger interest of majority of indigenes that the said licence should be
revoked outright for cogent reasons subsequently stated in this petition,” the
petition read.
Those
approving the petition are Chief of Gbane, Assembly Member of Gaare-Gbane,
Ndaan Gugbazaah-Tassoh, among others.
According
to the petition, the introduction of Cassius Mining Limited (Cassius) brought
with it “a cascade of inter-company disputes, as well as hostilities amongst
small scale miners and traditional authorities.”
“No
sooner had the said Cassius mining company arrived in the community than there
were a series of mining concession litigation, sponsored fragmentations of
small scale miners’ front and utter disregard for community and traditional
authorities,” the petition said.
The
petition noted that “no traditional authority has been recognised as one
capable of amicably resolving most of their self-inflicted problems.”
“As
a matter of concern and to douse the growing tension in the community, we have
taken it upon ourselves to assess the operations of that company and have come
to the following demand/concerns: the licence area of the Cassius company came
too close to an already existing operational area belonging to the Yenyeya and
Pabortaaba Mining Groups who are enjoying Mine Support Service from the Shaanxi
Mining (Ghana) Limited, who equally have potentials of expanding their
operations to large scale,” it stated.
“It
is obvious that the Cassius licence gave birth to potential cases of overlaps
both surface and underground,” it added.
The
petition revealed that “this is what has been the beef between the two mining
‘giants’ in our community.”
“We
consider our petition timely since we are reliably informed that the prospecting
licence of Cassius has expired since December 2018. It is our position that the
licence should not be renewed anymore to avoid what has visited our community
in the past three years,” it observed.
Cassius Mining is yet to respond to the claims.
BY Melvin Tarlue
