Newmont Ghana to start production at Akyem project late 2013

Barring any hitches, Newmont Ghana’s Akyem project will start full production in the last quarter of this year, an official of the gold mining firm has said.

“We are on course to commence production late this year,” Mr Oduro-Kwarteng Marfo, External Relations Manager, of Newmont Ghana told the GNA after a meeting with journalists on the current status of the project.

Mr Marfo said construction of the mine was 78 per cent complete as at the end of December 2012 and that initial investment cost would range between $900 million and $1.1 billion.

He said production projections from the mine for the first five years would fall between 350,000 and 450,000 ounces.

Mr Marfo said the company has resettled about 155 households while several water projects, construction of school blocks, and tarring of roads in various communities had been carried out.

Other facilities provided by Newmont Ghana, he said, include accommodation for health professionals which in the process has helped to attract doctors to take residence in the area.

He said under the company’s Agricultural Improvement and Land Access Programme, farmers had received support to access new lands, extension services and cash incentives to help defray farm management costs.

“All these packages are offered to the farmers even after they have received their compensation entitlement,” he said.

Mr Marfo said the company had established the Newmont Akyem Development Foundation to implement sustainable investment initiatives in the mine communities, offer scholarships to needy students and undertake development projects.

Funding for the Foundation would be provided by Newmont through the contributions of one per cent of net profit and $1 per ounce of gold produced.

This, he said, would contribute to a positive relationship between the company and the communities.

Source: GNA