By Felix Coffie
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, says the government is pursuing the recommendations made by the 5-Member Committee set up to review the Health and Safety Protocols in the Mining Sector.
He has, therefore, called on all large scale mining companies including Gold Fields Ghana Limited to partner the government in building Ghana into a viable Mining hub of Africa.
He explained that by building Ghana into the Mining Hub of Africa, the President’s vision is to ensure that all the components of the value chain exist.
“From exploitation, to mining, to refinery, to the downstream industry, to the various linkages in the mining industry gets established here,” he said.
Mr. Jinapor said the government cannot achieve this feat without the partnership and cooperation of mining companies such as the Gold Fields and therefore called for stronger collaboration among them.
“I am here to extend a hand of partnership. Let us work together to build the Mining Industry in Ghana. Let us be partners, let us cooperate. We don’t have to operate on the bases of adversaries but rather on the bases of partners,” he said.
“We are the regulators, you are the operators, at the end of the day we need each other to build that Mining industry, and I as your Minister, I am fully committed to work with Gold Fields to build the company into the biggest Mining industry in the world, not just Africa.”
The Minister made the call when he paid a day’s working visit to the Tarkwa Mines of the Gold Fields Ghana Limited to among others ascertain their level of operations, inspect some development projects at the Mine and also interact with Management and Staff of the company.
Minister on Mining companies
He assured that to make this dream a reality, the government is committed to play its role in creating a conducive environment that will enable Gold Fields and other Mining companies to thrive in Ghana and invest more.
He disclosed that in due time, the Ministry will engage Executives of the Ghana Chamber of Mines to get mining institutions on board the Green Ghana Project which will ensure the planting of trees to restore the vegetative cover of the country while commending the company for their own initiatives taken to Green Ghana through oil plantations and other vegetative initiatives.
Mr Jinapor applauded the company for their generous donation of $1million dollars to the Appiatse Support Fund aimed at complementing the government’s efforts to rebuild the Appiatse Community.
Congratulating Gold Fields on their Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR) particularly on the road networks in Tarkwa and Damang, Mr. Jinapor reminded them of the President’s plea for them to work on the roads in the Tarkwa township.
He also applauded the management of Gold Fields for working tirelessly to ensure that the Mine is always safe.
The working visit of the Minister also saw him being taken on a brief tour of the Tarkwa Mines, mainly the Gold Room, where Gold is smelted and poured.
On the back of the Appiatse explosion incident, the General Manager of the Tarkwa Mine, Mr. Stephen Osei-Bempah in a presentation said the company has since the Appiatse incident taken more prudent steps to ensure that explosives transported are safe on the road.
On their sites, he said Gold Fields has been able to reduce injuries from 69 to 5 between 2010 and 2021.
”The Company is working hard towards achieving zero harm at all mining sites,” he said.