Chirano Gold Mines launches youth skills training

Chirano Gold Mines Limited, a mining company in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai District, has launched a community youth skills training programme to fight poverty and aid unemployed young people in its operation area to become economically self-supporting.

For a start, 50 beneficiaries from 24 communities including, Etwebo, Chirano, Akoti, Paboase, Anyinasie, Serami, Akaaso and Subri have been selected to undergo one-year training in electrical, plant and equipment maintenance, masonry and how to operate the excavator among other things.

A total of $300,000 would be spent and this would involve monthly allowance of GH¢450.00 to each trainee, clothing and meals.

Mr. John Seaward, General Manager of the Company, said the goal was to prepare and position them in a way that would make them not solely dependent on the mine for their survival.

“Unemployment is a global challenge and the youth are most affected leading to high rural-urban migration, alcoholism, high teenage pregnancy with its attendant implications; but this could be reversed if more youth have some employable skills,” he said.

He said they are currently sponsoring six young men for a three-year course at the AngloGold Ashanti Engineering School at a cost of $200,000.

Forty others have been trained at the Mine’s engineering and processing plant since November 2005.

Nana Frimpong Manso, Chief of Paboase, described the initiative as commendable and said it would significantly reduce the tension and confrontation that often tended to characterize the relationship between mining companies and the host communities.

He urged the beneficiaries to take the training seriously to enhance their lives during and after the mine-life of the company.

They should be disciplined and respect safety regulations at the mine, where they are going to receive the training and appealed to the Mines to sustain its scholarship scheme for school children in the area.**