Newmont Ghana repudiates WACAM reports on Ahafo Mine

Newmont Ghana, one of the largest mining companies operating in Ghana has rejected reports about its operations at the Ahafo Mine, one of ite two mines in Ghana.

The report which was issued by the Wassa Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) – an organization at the forefront of raising national awareness on mining issues for protection of community rights in February 2017, accused Newmont Ghana among others that its operations are adversely affecting water sources and marginalized women in nearby communities.

Subsequently, Newmont Ghana commissioned a team of independent assessors to evaluate the methodologies and conclusions of the WACAM report. The independent experts issued a report today September 7, 2017 repudiating the WACAM report.

In a press release issued following the release of the report, Newmont Ghana said the independent evaluations found that the methodology used in the WACAM-sponsored reports were inconsistent with accepted methodology and cannot be relied upon as the basis for the reports’ conclusions. 

“The review of the environmental and health impact report was conducted by a team of experts from Newfields Company, an international consulting firm and Dr. K. P. Asante of the Kintampo Health Research Center. The Marginalization of women report review was led by Frederick Giovanetti, a social impact Consultant and Dr. Michael Poku-Boansi of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology,” Newmont Ghana said.

The miner indicated further that, in their environmental technical review, the independent assessors ‘found a number of deficiencies, errors, and misrepresentations that invalidate the scientific validity of these claims. Further, as described in the technical review, actual biomonitoring data for the communities within the Ahafo Mine area do not support the claims of health impacts to local residents.’

It added that the technical review went on to state, “A primary deficiency in the Armah-Obiri Report is the lack of supporting data and information that typically are used to assess and support conclusions about the representativeness and validity of sample results. Specifically, the deficiencies relate to laboratory analytical reports; individual analytical results in a database; quality assurance and quality control plan; field data collection forms; chain-of-custody forms for environmental samples; field quality control samples; laboratory quality control results; and final verification and validation of sample results.”

According to Newmont, the independent assessor also highlighted technical errors and other problems associated with all four steps of the risk assessment process for human health assessment, namely data collection, exposure assessment, toxicity assessment, and risk characterization.

Newmont pointed out that regarding the assertions of marginalization of women due to the Ahafo mine’s activities, the independent assessors made the following observations:

• Newmont Ghana’s Agricultural Improvement and Land Access Programme intervention which was aimed at helping Project Affected Persons have access to land for farming did not marginalize women at the expense of their male counterparts and that a significant proportion of women benefited from the intervention.
• The incidence of Malaria, Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, Typhoid and Diarrhoea in the Asutifi North District cannot be directly linked to mining.
• There were no gender dimensions to water access, and that the improved water quality due to Newmont’s intervention has positively impacted both men and women equally.
• Due to the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation’s micro-credit facility and Newmont initiated Women’s Consultative Committee Revolving Fund, women had better access to credit.

Alwyn Pretorius, Newmont’s Regional Senior Vice President, Newmont Africa was quoted in the release as saying; “Our commitment to transparently report the results of our ongoing environmental monitoring is central to our environmental stewardship and social responsibility philosophy.

“We adhere to our commitments and legal obligations, while working transparently with regulators and other stakeholders to responsibly manage our operations. Protecting and promoting the health and welfare of our employees and local communities is central to Newmont’s purpose, which is to create value and improve lives through sustainable and responsible mining.”

Newmont stated that as recommended by the assessors, it is working on an independent and participatory approach to water sampling made up of regulators, community stakeholders and the company itself, in order to enhance transparency and confidence in the environmental monitoring process.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi