Two people are reported dead and others injured in a clash involving local miners and the military at Gbane, a mining community in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region.
This happened on Friday, March 15, when some local miners protested the operations of the security services to halt the activities of illegal mining on a concession belonging to Earl International Gold Limited (previously Shaanxi Gold Mining Company).
The operations, which involved the sealing up of illegal mining pits, led to tension between the locals and the military as some of the miners, including women, protested the actions of the military.
The military, in order to control the protestors, opened fire on them leading to the death of the two and injuring others in the process.
Mr Thomas Awuni, the Talensi District Chief Executive, told the Ghana News Agency that although the incident indeed occurred between some local miners and the military leading to some casualties, he was yet to receive briefing and could not give any fu
rther details on the issue.
Apart from the casualties recorded, it was reported that some of the community miners also destroyed some facilities and operational machines of Earl International Gold Ltd, injuring some staff of the company in the process.
The Earl International Gold Limited had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2021 with the owners of some concessions on which the small-scale miners in the area mined.
The MoU was to relinquish interest in their concessions to the company and the small-scale miners are now shareholders of the concessions.
Mr Albert Azongo, Assistant Public Relations Officer, Earl International Gold Limited, noted that the exercise to seal the illegal mining pits was sanctioned by the Upper East Regional Security Council (REGSEC) and supported by the Minerals Commission.
One of the major challenges facing the operations of the company was the intrusion of illegal miners who had dug tunnels within their lands to connect to the company’s underground concession purpo
sely to pilfer gold, he said.
Such activities, Mr Azongo said, was not only making the company to incur losses but also putting the lives of the intruders at risk.
In 2016, he recalled that 16 people lost their lives through such illegal activities and the company had had several engagements with the miners to seal the pits to avoid a repeat of that incident.
‘In recent times, our geologist reported that some pits being operated by these miners are almost connecting to ours. Though, they are yet to connect, the boundary is so thin that a continuous blast by our company in that area can cause a mine disaster and claim lives,’ he said.
‘…We first raised the alarm in September, October and this March. REGSEC called a meeting, which was attended by the Minerals Commission and small-scale miners who were the concession owners before Earl came in as a large scale miner and the decision to move in to seal the pits was taken in that meeting,’ he explained.
Mr Azongo said the exercise had since been aborted to ma
ke way for further engagements.
Source: Ghana News Agency