The Shaanxi Mining Company Ghana Limited, providing mining support services to two small scale registered mining groups in the Upper East Region, said it adhered to mining and safety regulations in the discharge of its duties. The two groups are known as Yenyeya and Pubortaaba mining groups located in the Talensi District.

Mr Maxwell Wooma, Public Relations Officer of the Company, said this at a press conference held in Bolgatanga at the weekend to debunk allegations that three illegal miners who died recently were gassed in a pit belonging to the Shaanxi Mining Company Ghana Limited.

“Management sees as regrettable the unfortunate and sudden death of these people and sincerely extend its deepest condolences to the bereaved families. “However, we note with deep worry the deliberate act of drawing the company’s name into this worrisome issue. We must remember that the illegal miners around our company equally sink shafts and blast underground. “Once no determination has been made about where the deceased entered, it is highly mischievous to link the unfortunate gassing and subsequent death of the men to our company,” he said.

Mr Wooma said in the discharge of its duties, the company adhered strictly to the mining and safety regulations and reported to the relevant authorities such as the Inspectorate Division of Minerals Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and the moderations of the District Assembly.

He said the company had no knowledge of the entry of any unauthorized miners into any of its ventilation pits and had not been reported to that some people had been gassed by chemicals in its pits. “In as much as we co-exist with other legal and illegal miners at the mining site, we count on mutual relationship and the high need for each side to operate safely and without encroachment,” Mr Wooma said.

He said the company of late had suffered breakages into its underground tunnels by “galamsey” operators to steal ore and indicated that even though it kept educating those people on the dangers of such acts they would not stop.

“It is our belief that as a law abiding conglomerate of companies, we will be given the needed assistance to keep to mine under safe conditions and the regulations. The Shaanxi Mining Ghana limited, which is the service company, has invested hugely into both mining activities and social responsibility. “The company is currently constructing 10 boreholes at 10,000.00 Ghana Cedis each for people in the mining area, the Gbane Community and Tarkwa mining areas. We have also constructed a one million US dollar bridge across River ‘Oun’, a river separating the Tarkwa and Obuasi mining areas in the Gbane Mining site. “We will soon start to relocate a government school at the mining area to a better site and also put up a clinic for the Gbane Community following their request,” Mr Wooma said.

Mr Joseph Kpemkpa, Legal Advisor to the Company, said the company had all the necessary documents on mining and urged all community members to co-exist peacefully with the foreigners. He said: “We live in community of nations. There are equally Ghanaian workers who are working in China”.

Mr Charles Ndanbon, Managing Director of Yenyeya Small Scale Mining Group, advised illegal miners to regularize their activities and adhere to the Mining and Safety Regulations.

Meanwhile the Police Administration said investigations into the issue were ongoing and that, so far, it had been established that some illegal miners were using their pits, which were connected to the Chinese Company’s underground tunnels, to steal ore.

Superintendent Alex Asamoa-Frimpong, Regional Crime Officer, said the possibility of the company blasting at the period the illegal miners entered the pit could not be ruled adding that they were yet to establish the truth.