Ayanfuri Mines collapses

A subsidiary of the Ashanti Goldfields Company (AGC), the Ayanfuri Mines, has collapsed after the company exhausted its ore reserves and can therefore not operate again. The mines’ 244 workers are, as a result, being laid off.

The first batch of workers is expected to receive their termination letters on 1st October 2001. The Human Resource Manager of the company, Mr Marterson Armah, disclosed this in an interview at Ayanfuri.

He said that the management of the company would however, look at the possibility of deploying some of workers to other branches of the AGC.

Mr Armah said that the workers would be paid their entitlements and October salaries, “hopefully by the end of the year”.

Both parties are said to have reached an agreement on issues relating to gratuities, entitlements and salaries, among others.

For his part, Mr Gyarko Mensah, chairman of the Workers Union said that all issues relating to their collective agreement had been solved, thus there was no cause for alarm.

He said that the company did not have any more ore reserves to mine.

The Ayanfuri Mines, in the Dunkwa-on-Offin District, was started by the CLUFF Resources but was taken over in 1994 by Ashanti Goldfields and used for heap leach mining.