Beware Of Anglo's Operations - Minning Engineer

A renowned Zambian mining engineer and environmental auditor, Peter Sinkamba, has urged the Ghana government to re-consider its decision in dealing with AngloGold in respect of its offer to merge with AGC.

In an interview with the paper, Sinkamba said Anglo-American PLC, the parent company of AngloGold, mined copper in Zambia for over 70 years “but left behind poor social and environmental track record”.

Mr. Sinkamba, also the CE of Citizens for Better Environment in Zambia said Anglo manipulated its dealings with the Zambia government to ensure that communities suffering from excruciating environmental problems as a result of Anglo’s operations, were harmless, hopeless and helpless for as long as the company operated in Zambia.

He said “anger and frustration over Anglo’s history of manipulation and environmental irresponsibility in Zambia compelled NGOs to take their case against Anglo to the UN and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development”.

Mr. Sinkamba therefore urged the government and Ghanaians to properly scrutinize AngloGold’s legally-bidding “Development Agreements” in terms of environmental protection laws, taxation, royalty payments and repatriation of profit.

According to him, “the very poor social and environmental track record of AngloGold’s parent company in Zambia must wake the government of the people of Ghana up” adding that, “excruciating environmental disaster inflicted on Zambia by operations of Anglo may be duplicated on Ghana too.