Goldfields says no danger to human health during cyanide spill

Richard Graeme, Managing Director of Goldfields Ghana Limited, on Monday reiterated that the cyanide spill that occurred on October 16 at Tarkwa did not in anyway affect human health or safety.

He said the company responded quickly when the fault was detected. "We responded as promptly as any one would have responded to an outbreak of fire in his premises."

Press reports had said the spillage was the worst environmental disaster in the country that killed plant, birds as well as fish and crabs in the Asuman River.

Mr Graeme described the press report as a "great deal of incorrect and misleading information about what actually did occur at the Tarkwa Gold mine".

He said the only thing that died was fish as a result of the introduction of chlorine to detoxify the stream. "Fishes are extremely sensitive to chlorine, but the chlorine was to kill the effect of the cyanide."

The manager said since the incident, the company has been serving the affected communities - Abe Kuase and Huninso - with water on a daily basis through a water tanker.

"We are also sinking three bore-holes for each community," he said, adding that investigations and sampling of the river is on going.

"Even the first water sample tested by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Mine Inspectorate showed that there was no damage to human health and safety," Mr Graeme said.

He said the most frightening revelation of the sample from the Asuman River was that some communities had been "dumping buckets of human waste into the river."

"This is even more dangerous since it could cause Bilharzia and guinea worm in the communities...."

Asked why the mining company would not provide toilets for the communities, Mr. Graeme said, "I must confess on some ignorance about what is required of us to do as a social obligation to the communities in which we work. We have always focused our attention on schools, health care and water supply."

Prof. Dominic Kweku Fobih, Minister of Environment and Science on Friday asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Water Research Institute (WRI) and the Water Resources Commission (WRC) to carry out tests on the Asuman stream in the Tarkwa district of the Western Region to establish its quality for human consumption and usage following the cyanide spill.

At a press conference held in Accra, Prof. Fobih said although he had led a team to the area to investigate the story, the EPA, WRI and the WRC needed to do their independent investigations to come out with the level of pollution in the stream.

He said his team's investigation revealed that the newspaper had blown the incident out of proportion. "However, monitoring of the situation is in progress and will continue until the ministry is assured of the safety of the people."