Group threatens to invade Newmont mines

Kumasi, Nov. 2, GNA -- Members in some Ahafo communities in the Brong Ahafo region whose livelihood have been affected by the mining activities of the Newmont Ghana Gold, have threatened to invade the mine site if the company failed to pay adequate compensation to them.

The affected persons who have come together under an umbrella organisation called 'Group for Livelihood and Environment (GLE), say through its operations, Newmont had destroyed their houses, fish ponds and other sources of livelihood and had refused compensate them.

Addressing a press conference in Kumasi on Thursday, Mr Benhazin Joseph Daha, assemblyman for Ntotoroso and a member of the group, said the company had refused to listen to their pleas, even after petitioning the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on the issue.

He said the group members, who are mostly farmers in the Awonsuono area, near Ntotoroso in the Asutifi district, have decided to resort to the media to let their plight known to the public.

Mr Daha said apart from compensations on crops destroyed by the company, nothing had been done for the people in the affected areas and denied claims in the media that Newmont Gold had undertaken a number of social responsibility projects in the affected Ahafo communities. He said the company's activities had polluted their water bodies and the environment.