Tarkwa (W/R), May 24, GNA- Some three hundred ex-workers of Goldfields, Tarkwa Mine on Wednesday undertook a peaceful demonstration against the management of Goldfields Ghana Limited (GFGL) Tarkwa mine for cheating them during the course of suspending its underground operations.
They paraded through some principal streets of Tarkwa amidst singing and drumming and carried placards, some of which read, "Goldfields did not treat underground workers humanely", "Goldfields Ghana has allowed many ex-workers to perish through frustration", "MP, tell Kufour the truth," "why underground mine under suspension, now turned a closure".
They have therefore submitted a petition to the Government through the District Chief Executive to intervene in "a naked robbery" perpetuated against the former underground workers of the Mine. It said the issue was the closure of the underground mine by (GFGL) in pursuit of their desired agenda to do only surface mining. Document available indicated that GFGL used the fall in the price of gold as reason for suspending the underground operations in order to do surface mining.
The petition said the motive behind the closure of the underground mine was to destroy valuable national asset, which is the huge gold deposit underground.
This is because according to history, the same South Africans who came to mine in the then Gold Coast before independence, declared the underground Mine "a dead mine" in their pursuit for surface mining but former President Dr Kwame Nkrumah rejected the offer and asked them to leave the "dead mine" for Ghanaians.
History has it that the rejection resulted in the setting up of State Gold Mining Corporation (SGMC) to carry out underground mine operations.
The petition said the underground mine helped to solve the unemployment problems, provided potable water to communities and their workshops served as vocational training centres for manpower development programmes.
All these facilities are no more, thereby throwing many people onto the street. Meanwhile the mine can still offer these services to the youth.
The petition pleaded with the government to appoint an independent body to look into the circumstances leading to the closure of the then viable underground mine and the need to re-open it to continue such services which the surfaces mine does not offer. "GFGL failed to give the underground mine to an interested investor, Annan Resources, after their own research offered 6,000 dollars instead of the 3,000 dollars GFGL demanded," it said. The petition called on GFGL to reconsider re-opening the underground mine to serve as a substitute to "galamsey" and its attendant theft and arm robbery problem in the Tarkwa area. "We cannot accept the closure of the mines as substitute for a suspension of underground operations due to the fall in the price of gold .
"GFGL succeeded in conniving with some people to put dust into the eyes of the former underground workers who feel were not given an even field for bargaining, "the petition added.
