Etwebo community demonstrates against Chirano Gold

The Etwebo community on Monday staged a demonstration against Chirano Gold Mines Limited (CGML) for unfulfilled promises purported to have been made by the company.

The demonstration, which lasted for two hours, was led by the chief of the community, Nana Gyam II, and some of his elders.

The demonstrators did not present any petition to the mining company and most of them wore red bands on their heads, arms and waist and held placards with the inscription “Employ us.”

A statement issued by the mining company and signed by Mr. Thomas Nyarko Danquah, the Human Resources and Security Manager of CGML, said the company was officially served with the intended demonstration on March 7 at an earlier meeting with the Community Consultative Committee on March 5 and Nana Gyam was present.

It said the unfulfilled promise was not substantiated and the company has no specific knowledge of the community’s claims.

The statement said the company cannot employ all the youth from surrounding communities.

It therefore said “we understand and sympathize with surrounding communities over the frustration that arise with the level of local employment but within our limited constraint, we have employed a large number of the youth from the area”.

The company said it had put in place programes to provide skills training for a number of the youth in their catchment area.