Nana Nkoa Okodom II, Paramount Chief of Sefwi-Wiawso and Okogyeman Kwaku Gyamprah III, Paramount Chief of Chirano have renewed their appeal to the government to grant the Chirano Gold Mines the license to start operations as quickly as possible.
They made the appeal when Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Mines, Prof Dominic Fobi, Minister of Environment and Science and Prof Kasim Kasanga, Minister of Lands and Forestry, visited the Chirano Gold Project at Akoti.
Speaking at a durbar at Akoti, Nana Okodom told the ministers that there was anxiety among the communities and the company itself about the continued delay in granting the permit.
Okogyeman Gyamprah said the two traditional areas had accepted the operations of the company with the realisation that it would benefit their people.
The two chiefs assured the ministers that royalties accruing from the operations of the mines would be put into a special fund for the development of the areas.
Mr Ross Ashton, Managing Director of the company, said the company, which will be the fourth largest mining company in the country, would produce 140,000 ounces of gold per annum over a seven-and-a-half-year period.
The operations of the company, he said, would bring about 50 million dollars direct benefit to the government and that the company had so far spent about six million dollars on its activities.
Mr Ashton said when it starts operations the company would employ about 400 people, majority of whom would be from the area.
''The company has established a nursery of about 114,000 seedlings of 35 different indigenous species and had donated 21,000 seedlings to the President's Special Initiative on forests.''
Mr Adjei-Darko said the Chirano project was a special case because of its peculiar nature of having part of mines in a productive forest reserve and this had delayed the permit.
