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Mr Charles Boazor addressing the press conference at Sheaga in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region. Pictures: VINCENT AMENUVEVE
Mr Charles Boazor addressing the press conference at Sheaga in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region. Pictures: VINCENT AMENUVEVE

Revoke licence of mining company in Talensi — Group

A group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Talensi (CCT) has appealed to the government to revoke the licence or certificate of a Chinese Mining company, Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited, which operates in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region.

The CCT stated that the company had allegedly been engaging in bad mining practices such as unannounced blasting, without filling the stopes, and surface blasting which sometimes caused cave-in disasters.

“We do not trust in the validity of the company's documentation and registration as a mining support services provider to small-scale mining groups," the Convenor of the group, Mr Charles Boazor, stated at a news conference at Sheaga in the Talensi District last Tuesday.

"It is also surprising that even though the Minerals and Mining Support Services Regulations, 2012,LI 2174, seeks to preserve mining support services to only Ghanaian local companies, Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited had been allowed and shielded to operate," he contended.

Mr Boazor claimed that the company’s blasting had destroyed the only borehole in the area, as well as a one-unit three-classroom block built by the district assembly and described a three-classroom block Shaanxi has built as unacceptable.

Mr Boazor maintained that apart from engaging in certain illegalities, the company was also mining in unauthorised areas and trespassing far beyond acceptable levels, incurring the wrath of other small-scale mining licence holders.

Maltreatment

He further alleged that out of about "502 Ghanaian employees of the company, about 450 of them were paid salaries and wages below GH¢250, while the employees worked under unsafe conditions with no protective gadgets.

Mr Boazor said the company had also not paid the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions of its employees since 2012 and that the Ghanaian employees suffered dismissals without recourse to any laid-down administrative procedures. 

No royalties

The convener alleged that checks at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) indicated that the company had not been paying taxes as a mining company because it was supposed to be rendering mining support services.

For that reason, he said, Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited had denied the land owners, traditional authorities and the district assembly royalties.

Meanwhile, he has advised the company to adhere to a directive from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in a letter dated April 24, 2017, to it to suspend mining operations.

Reaction

When contacted, the company denied the allegations directed at its operations.

Its Public Relations Officer, Mr Maxwell Woomah, stated that the company was legally established as a technical service provider for its local partners.

He said Shaanxi Mining Ghana Limited would hold a news conference in due course to respond to the allegations, during which it would show documentary proof of its establishment and operations.

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