The Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF) is to execute 21 new development projects at the cost of GHC631,925.75 in communities around the Ahafo mine this year.

Already the mining company has completed and handed over 30 projects it constructed at the cost of GHC2, 689,142.43 to the communities.

This was contained in a statement signed by Mr. Joseph Danso, Executive Secretary of NADeF and made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani on Wednesday.

The statement said new projects approved by the Board of Trustees of the foundation in December 2011 after the communities had submitted their project proposals to the trustees included 4-unit teachers’ quarters, extension of electricity and toilets.

Others are furnishing and landscaping of a NADeF funded clinic at Techire in Tano North District, as well as drilling and mechanization of a number of boreholes in the communities.

The statement said the company would also hand over a 51-seater bus to Gyamfi Kumanin Senior High and Technical School at Wamahinso and renovate and provide Information Communication Centers with computers in some of the communities.

Mr. Kwame Saarah-Mensah, Board Chairman of NADeF, said in the statement all the projects were meant to help improve the living conditions of the people and the local economy.

He said NADeF had made strides in creating sustainable development through partnerships since it was established in May 2008, he added.

Mr. Saarah-Mensah said NADeF had committed three million Ghana cedis on infrastructural projects, social amenities, economic empowerment and cultural heritage as well as sports in the various communities around the mine.

So far the foundation has awarded scholarships worth GHC 2,026,279.01 to 2,335 students from the communities around Newmont and they are pursuing programmes in tertiary and second cycle institutions, he said.