Newmont to employ 4,000 workers for Akyem project

Newmont Golden Ridge Limited’s (NGRL) is to employ about 4,000 workers at its Akyem project from the affected communities.

Mr Oduro-Kwarteng Marfo, External Relations Manager of the company’s Akyem Project, disclosed this in Koforidua during the second quarterly encounter by Newmont with the Eastern Regional press corps.

He said as a policy, 100 percent of all unskilled labour would come from the project area and even in the case of both skilled and semi-skilled, priority would be given to people from the communities.

Mr Marfo said it was only when qualified people could not be identified and recruited from the communities that outsiders would be employed.

He explained that as construction tilts down labour will reduce in as much the same way as actual mining which was expected to kick off around the second quarter of 2013.

Mr Marfo indicated that the target of Newmont was that about 35 percent of the total workforce of the company should come from the project area when it becomes fully operational and further increased to 50 percent within the next 10 years.

He said to realize that objective the company had recruited and started an apprenticeship programme for both tertiary and senior high school graduates from the project area and its Ahafo mine to prepare them as mill or heavy truck operators among others.

On resettlement, Mr Marfo said a total of 241 housing units including schools, teachers’ quarters and churches were expected to be completed between September and December this year for affected communities from Yayaaso and Yaw Tano.

Mr Marfo said so far 160 of the houses had been completed with 70 of them already occupied by beneficiaries.

He said apart from well-planned layout and potable water at the resettlement site all the houses had been provided with space for future expansion by their owners, toilet facilities and kitchen.

The idea of providing teachers accommodation was to attract, motivate and retain qualified staff at the site, Mr Marfo stressed.

Mr Marfo revealed that the company was expanding and rehabilitating existing pipe systems at Afosu, New Abirem, Mamanso and Ntronang to supply safe drinking water to the affected communities with the drilling of 10 boreholes in all the project impacted communities.

He said a total of 300 household latrines were also being constructed in all the project communities to improve sanitation.

Mr Marfo said Newmont had acquired a landfill site at Old Abirem for the management of waste by Zoomlion and the company was expected to spend about GH¢55,000 every month in that direction.

Source: GNA