Parliament Committee says no need to review three of Electrochem’s mining leases
A joint report by Parliament’s Select Committees on Mines and Energy and Lands and Forestry says there is no legal basis to review or modify the three mining leases of Ghana’s largest wholly owned salt mining company, Electrochem Ghana Limited.
The leases were ratified by the House on November 6, 2020.
The joint committee suggested that the company allocated space to local miners within the concession area in a mutually beneficial arrangement for the company and the locals to encourage local participation in the salt mining venture.
It recommended that local mining be carried out in accordance with the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency’s approved environmental laws and practices.
“ElectroChem Ghana Limited should assist the indigenes in the deployment of best salt mining practices in order not to devalue the concession area and lower production,” it said.
The House okayed the recommendations shortly after adopting the report of the Select Committees on Mines and Energy and Lands and Forestry on the ratification of three mining leases for Electrochem Ghana Limited’s Ada Songor salt mining project.
On November 6, 2020, Parliament approved three mining lease agreements that validated ElectroChem’s salt mining operation in the Ada Songor Lagoon for 15 years, in accordance with Article 268 (11) of the Constitution.
Since then, the company had started commercial operations in the Ada Songor Salt Lagoon, investing $88 million in the first phase of the 41.000-acre first-rate salt lagoon.
However, on Thursday, October 9, 2023, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sege, Mr. Christian Otuteye, made a statement on the floor of the House to draw attention to a clash between small-scale salt miners along the Songor Lagoon enclave and an official of Electrochem Ghana Limited,
The clash resulted in the death of a small-scale miner named Mr. Numo Korletey Agormedah,
The MP demanded police investigation into the incident.
As a result, First Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei-Owusu, chairing sitting on that day, referred the matter to the joint committees on Mines and Energy, and Lands and Forestry, to investigate and report back to the House.
The committee was tasked with reviewing the contracts ratified by Parliament on November 6, 2020, visiting the Songor Lagoon, and advising the House on the possibility of re-negotiating the contract while leaving some areas open for indigenes to continue their small-scale mining operations.
To accomplish its task, the committees invited stakeholders and interested parties to submit written submissions for interrogation, which included public hearings.
Officials from ElectroChem Ghana Limited, Third World Network – Africa, Dangme East Salt Producers Association (DESPA), Ada Songor Lagoon Association (ASLA), and the Tekperbiawe Divisional Queen Mother were among those invited.
According to the report, as presented by the then-Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee, Mr. Samuel Atta Akyea, who moved the motion for the report’s adoption, there was a need for continuous stakeholder engagement to persuade those who were opposed to the roll-out of a national resource under the mistaken belief that indigenes owned the mineral known as salt.
“Mr. Speaker, it is imperative that the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) should embark on a massive educational campaign in the salt mining area to bring indigenes to the realisation that salt is a natural mineral and not a local means of livelihood in the same category of gold in the Ashanti Region, petroleum in the Western Region and bauxite in the Eastern Region,” it said.
The committee also recommended that the joint committee’s MPs organise local education tours and durbars to help all parties achieve greater peace.
It urged politicians to stop making capital out of the use of national assets for Ghana’s development, rather than inciting indigenes to believe that the government of the day was robbing them.
“There should be a serious security engagement in the communities for them to come to terms with the fact that it is in the best interests of Ghana and the local communities to desist from any form of lawlessness to pave the way for a national undertaking with export benefits to function at full throttle.
“Parliament and NCCE should be the arrow heads in this regard,” the committee said.
They urged indigenes to be educated by their chiefs, stakeholders, and the police about Ghana’s stake in ElectroChem Ghana Limited and its salt mining business in Ada Songor, and that any acts of lawlessness against the company would result in a direct confrontation with Ghana’s law enforcement agencies,” the report said.
The committee stated that all national undertakings across the country, including Ashanti Goldfields’ gold mining business, were operational because of that basic understanding.
The committees also recommended that the police continued to investigate Mr. Numo Korletey Agormedah’s death and prosecute the perpetrator(s).
“All minor criminal complaints associated with the salt mining business which can be resolved between the complainants and the culprits to tone down tension in the salt producing environment.
“The chiefs should take up such peaceful initiatives. “Any survey challenge relating to the extent of the concession should be brought to the attention of the Minerals Commission for investigations,” it said.
The committee urged ElectroChem Ghana Limited to expand their social intervention activities as their fortunes improved to fund poverty in the communities.
The committee also stated that the company should desecrate cemeteries, fetish houses, and places within the concession area while implementing such a massive national project.
Prior to the adoption of the committee’s report, members of the House took opposing positions on the issue.
This prompted the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to intervene and direct that the joint committee revisit the issues to resolve any outstanding differences.
That, he believed, would result in a more comprehensive and equitable resolution to the deadlock.
Source: GNA