NGO calls for accountability and transparency in mining
The Savanna Research and Advocacy Network (SRAN), an advocacy nonprofit organization that aims at ensuring responsible mining in the Upper East Region, has called on stakeholders to ensure accountability and transparency in mining in the Region.
According to SRAN, land owners, mining communities and the country at large had not benefited from mining companies in the Region as much as it deserved yet the mining companies at the Talensi District in particular continued to engage in unsavoury exploitation of the mineral resources.
That, the organization noted needed urgent attention by the Mineral commission, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Talensi Traditional Council and the District Assembly to collaborate and ensure that mining was done responsibly and beneficial to the people and the country.
The NGO said this in a statement signed by Mr Naa B. Albert, the secretary of SRAN and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga.
It also called on Government and the Mineral commission to make public the percentage of shares that the Ghana Government held in the mining concessions, including the amount of royalties paid by Earl International Gold Limited and Cardinal/Shandong mining company, operating in the Talensi District.
The SRAN said it was not against mining but was only ensuring that mining was done responsibly and benefited the community where it was undertaken and the country as a whole while taking into consideration the safety and needs of local miners.
It regretted that mining in the Talensi District led to the destruction of roads, diversion of water bodies and had some people’s livelihood displaced and lands confiscated and that did not uphold the values and culture of communities.
The advocacy network alleged that the operation of Earl International Gold Limited in the Talensi district for many years had not yielded any desired results as there had not been any major advancement in the area of development, to compensate the people in place of their gold resource.
It urged the Mineral Commission and the EPA to work together to ensure that tailing dams were well constructed and the reclamation bonds of all companies were up to date.
Source: GNA