WACAM highlights the negative impact of surface mining

Accra, May 26, GNA - The Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) has issued a press statement signed by its Executive Director, Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng cataloguing the negative impact of mining in connection with the 80th anniversary of the Ghana Chamber of Mines (full text):

Mining is Killing Agriculture

The soaring food price fuelled by external factors and its effects on national food prices makes it imperative for national discussions on our economic direction. WACAM is of the opinion that Ghana possesses enormous agricultural potential which if properly developed would insulate the country from the global food crisis.

In the past two decades, there had been a paradigm shift in our economic policy from dependence on agriculture to mining and we have exhibited a strong desire and commitment to promote the mining sector above all sectors through the provision of generous incentives to attract foreign Direct Investment to the extractive sector. Globally, FDI inflows to the agricultural sector is about 5 per cent whilst in Ghana FDI inflows into the extractive sector accounts for about 70 per cent of the total FDI inflows into the economy of Ghana.

WACAM had been concerned about the fact that large tracts of agricultural lands are currently under mining concession. As at 1998, government had granted more that two hundred mining leases resulting in mining companies holding 30 per cent of the country's lands surface area in mining concessions.

Even more worrying is the increasing mining activities in the important food producing areas in Ghana. Multinational mining companies are mining in Western, Eastern, Ashanti and in the Brong Ahafo Region and these are areas that constitute the food basket of the country. Multinational mining companies Anglogold Ashanti, Golden Star Resources, Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Goldfields Ghana Limited and Chirano Gold Mines etc hold large tracts of agricultural lands as mining concessions.

Concessions of mining companies could cover land areas from 50 km2 to 4,000 km2 and these concessions are agricultural lands that form the economic base of many mining communities.

Many of the affected communities have lost their economic livelihood through displacement and areas that used to be important food production areas have become areas of net food deficit. We would cite a few examples to demonstrate our concern.

Kojokrom. A farming community which was displaced by the mining operations of the Bogoso Gold Limited now Golden Star Resources has been resettled near Bogoso in buildings described by the people as hencoops with land equal to the size of a football field and the poverty in this community is very visible.

The people of Kojokrom have nostalgia of their old community where they lived as prosperous farmers and had been disoriented by the operations of Bogoso Gold Limited, now Golden Star Resources. Newmont has been screening a documentary on TV stations in Ghana showcasing some of the good things the Company had done in Kenyase and its environs as a result of the operations of Newmont's Ahafo Mine. The documentary showed beneficiaries of Nwemont's vulnerable programmes, who had been supplied with rice rations.

Kenyase and its environs had been very important areas for food and cocoa production. The people in the Kenyase area were self-sufficient in food production before the mining operations took their lands and for some of the people to become beneficiaries of food aid to survive after the four years of losing their lands to Newmont depicts a story of a mourning community since rice is not the staple food for the area. Damang was a major food growing area that supplied foodstuffs to Tarkwa and other major towns in the Wassa West District until the community was resettled by the Abosso Goldfields Limited, now a subsidiary of Goldfields Ghana Limited, between a forest reserve and the company thus denying the community access to land. In the majority of the cases, farming communities that are displaced by mining operations are deprived of economic activities because they are resettled without access to land. The much talked about alternative livelihood programmes of mining companies had not been able to restore the lost livelihood of affected people because of the ridiculous package of the programme. Mining had caused the displacement of thousands of people.

Goldfields Ghana Limited is recorded to have displaced 30,000 landlords in 5 years and the official records of Newmont Ahafo Mines indicates that about 10,000 landlords were displaced during the first phase of the company's operations and by the time the company completes its second phase operations, a total of 20,000 landlords would be displaced. Some of the communities such as Atuabo, Akontanse, Osofo Mensakrom were resettled by Goldfields Ghana Limied at New Atuabo in Tarkwa without access to land.

Surface mining generates a lot of waste, which are dumped on agriculture lands. The Rock Waste Dump of Anglogold Ashanti Iduapriem Mine has destroyed large tracts of farmlands of the Teberebie community and also blocked the community's access to their farms. The Rock waste Dump in Teberebire has denied the community access to land farming. A huge cyanide holding pound of Anglogold Asanti, Obuasi Mine in Dokyiwa has created scarcity of land in Dokyoiwa and surrounding communities. A Roaster installed in 1991 by the then Bogoso Billiton Compnay now Golden Star Resources and removed in 1994, emitted poisonous gases, which destroyed the crops in communities such as the Bodwire Egya and Ayensukrom No 2. According to the farmers at Ayensukrom No 2, a research carried out by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Tarkwa in 1992 confirmed that the gas emissions form the roaster was responsible for the drastic reduction in the yields of their crops and cocoa. When the farmers in Bodwire Egya realised the effects of the gas emissions on their health and farm produce, the farmers voluntarily abandoned their farms and properties and relocated to other communities when the Company refused to address their problem.

Mining communities paid ridiculous compensation to farmers affected by their operations. For example Newmont made a one-off compensation payment of seven Ghana cedis to nine Ghana cedis for one cocoa tree when a cocoa farmer earned between 15 Ghana cedis to 20 Ghana cedis each year from a cocoa tree for its economic life of 40 years to 50 years and also used the cocoa farms to gain Cocoa Marketing Board Scholarship to support their children education in high schools. Companies like Chirano Gold Mine paid less than three Ghana cedis for a cocoa tress as compensation.

Another problem of serious concern is the issues of mining in forest reserves. Newmont intends to mine in the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve in the Akyem area in the Eastern Region, whiles Chirano Gold Mines wants to mine in the Tano Suraw Forest reserve. Farmers living on the fringes of the two forest reserves have expressed their opposition to the mining operations in the two forest reserves.

The chiefs and people in the communities around the Tano Suraw Forest Reserve, where Chirano intends to operate, rejected the claim that about 80 per cent of the Reserve was degraded. This was reported in a TV 3 News of April 7, 2003 where the chiefs and people and challenged the public to go there and verify the facts for themselves. Recently, 215 farmers in communities living on the fringes of the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve expressed their opposition to Newmont's intention to mine in Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve in a petition that was sent to the Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines and environmental Protection Agency.

The petition of the farmers mentioned that the Ajenua Bepo Forest Reserve being the highest hill in the area improved rainfall and thus promoted agriculture in addition to protecting watersheds of important rivers and for biodiversity protection.

The pollution of rivers through cyanide spillages destroys the opportunity for communities to use rivers for river-based livelihoods like fishing and thus depriving communities of meeting their protein needs. Communities such as Dumase and Teberebie that had experienced the effects of cyanide spillages had to live with loss of land in addition to water problems.

WACAM realizes that surface mining is gradually killing agriculture but the negative effects of mining on the agricultural sector are completely missing in the discussions of the rising cost of food prices. If major areas of agricultural production are gradually becoming areas of net food deficit as a result of the operations of surface mining companies, then we need to have the foresight to recognize that we are mining ourselves out of existence.

The theme for the 80th Anniversary of the Ghana Chamber of Mines which is the advocacy organization of the mining companies is "Life without mining is impossible" and the theme did not reflect on the realities of the destruction of the basic human needs for survival such as the need for clean air, clean water and good agricultural lands which mining destroys.

Mining affect the health status of affected communities and reduces the productivity of farmers. For example, abandoned pits become breeding grounds for mosquitoes thus increasing the incidence of malaria in mining communities.

For the mining communities, "Life with mining is Hell". Mining has a life span while agriculture is in perpetuity. The nation should consider the long-term consequences of promoting surface mining, which is inherently unsustainable against agriculture, which is sustainable. The signs have started showing and we ignore it at our own peril (end text). 26 May 08