Mining helps build a thriving community at Ahafo
Mining companies’ excitement over Ghana is being watered down by an unfriendly fiscal regime and most times by contradictions of communities seeking to milk more from a mining company, yet seemingly unwilling to tackle the challenges that confront the industry.
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There are intriguing contradictions of mining communities seeing wealth leave their soils, yet enveloped in thick veils of poverty; the contradiction of a heavily taxed mining industry but still considered as a gluttonous fat cow and a sinister ‘tax evader’ by local communities.
Yet at Ahafo, a different narrative pertains.
In Ahafo’s serene environments, mining is anchoring major community development projects; lives have been transformed and indigenes have been economically empowered.
Stripped off any flowery depictions, Newmont Ghana Gold, Ahafo mine, still holds an important promise…perhaps ample testament that when regulatory systems work and ethical mining companies are given some good guarantees, mining presents a great future for the nation’s development.
For nine years, communities around Newmont Ghana’s Ahafo mine have initiated a number of sustainable development projects to improve the lives of their people.
Following consultations between various interest groups in the communities and the Ahafo mine, the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation was established in 2008 to drive the company’s social responsibility commitments to the communities.
At a tour of the Newmont Ghana Gold, Ahafo operations by the Journalists For Business Advocacy (JBA), the Executive Secretary of NADeF, Ms Elizabeth Opoku-Darko, said about 41 public schools were benefiting from the Quality Improvement in Basic Schools (QUIBS) project set up to support the quality of education at the basic level in Ahafo.
So far, over 8,000 educational scholarships have been awarded at the senior high, tertiary and apprenticeship levels, in addition to over 100 infrastructural projects completed and handed over to the communities by NADeF.
“We are honoured to be recognised for our efforts in improving lives and driving socio-economic progress in Ahafo. NADeF will continue to expand its programmes to help even more women and children thrive in the communities,” Ms Opoku-Darko said.
Mining goodwill
The goodwill mining industries deserve is evidently thinning out. A combination of factors account for this: opaque and troubled utilisation of mining royalties paid by mining companies and wrong perceptions fuelled sometimes by awry cries of some civil society organisations that see no good in mining have amply torched and tortured the good perceptions people had of the mining industry.
Currently, NADeF has accrued $24.5 million to fund various development initiatives through the Ahafo Mine’s contributions of $1 per ounce of gold produced and one per cent annual net profit.
“What makes NADeF unique from other corporate foundations is the local ownership and participation in the selection, execution and management of all projects in the host communities. In effect, the locals decide what their needs are and work through NADeF to achieve them,” Ms Opoku-Darko added.
NADeF remains the company’s flagship social responsibility fund set up to support development projects in the 10 communities within which the mine operates.
These 10 host communities are in Asutifi North and Tano North districts of the Brong Ahafo Region. They are Ntotroso, Kenyasi No. 1, Kenyasi No. 2, Gyedu, Wamahinso, Susuanso, Terchire, Yamfo, Afirisipakrom and Adrobaa.
Contributions to economy
Newmont currently has a total workforce of 3,500 with 43 per cent of the employees coming from the local communities. The company has since the start of operations paid a total of $883 million in taxes, royalties and levies to the government. In 2016 alone, it paid $78 million to the government as royalties and taxes.
According to the acting General Manager of the Mine, Mr Daniel Egya-Mensah, the multi-national mining company paid $36 million and US$42 million dollars as royalties and taxes respectively in 2016.
Besides, the company spent $363 million in the Ghanaian economy through the procurement of goods and services while $75 million went into employee wages and benefits.
A whopping $18m went into procurement of goods and services purchased from local businesses, while $300m went into other Ghanaian suppliers.
He also said $4.08m was invested in communities in Ghana through monetary and in-kind support. The Manager, Communications and External Relations of the Mine, Mr Kwame Agbeko Azumah, said last year the mine contributed about $935,000 to the Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF).
Ahafo gold production
The Newmont Ahafo mine is expected to begin an underground operation that will add to the volumes of gold to be produced by the company from next year.
The underground exploitation coupled with the expansion of the Ahafo mill is expected to shoot the volume of gold produced from the current 315,000 to 345,000 ounces to 550,000-600,000 ounces annually.
The ore grade of 4.7 grams expected from the underground mine is said to be three times higher than Newmont’s surface mines.
The company has been operating surface mining since its entrance into the Ghanaian mining industry in 2006 but has now secured an environmental permit to undertake underground mining in one of its pits; the Subika pit.
The expansion is estimated to boost the capacity of the mine by more than 50 per cent. The underground resource has been studied for over 11 years and is estimated to have about 1.8 million ounces of gold which could be mined over an 11-year period.
The Mines Manager, Mr Yaw Okyere Ntramarh, said the foray into underground operations by the company is due to the diminishing value of surface mining.
Land reclamation
So far, the mining giant boasts of reclaiming a total of 70 hectares of its gold mining sites in Ahafo to its former state as part of sustainability agenda. The reclaimed land can be used for agricultural purposes.
Mining Engineer of Newmont Ahafo Mines, Mr Stephen Kpabitey, said about 12.9 hectares of land was undergoing reclamation this year.
Newmont's commitment to providing long-term environmental stability and beneficial post-mining land uses is stated in their Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement Policy and their approach to fulfilling this commitment is detailed in their Closure and Reclamation Management Standard.