Some disgruntled natives of the Namoalug Traditional area in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have expressed worries about what they describe as the failure of a foreign mining company in the area, Shandong Gold Ltd (Cardinal), to recognise the Namoalug Traditional Council as the traditional owners of the land where its mining site is located.
The natives have also accused the company of failing to institute good management practices.
Speaking at a press conference held at the palace of Chief of Namoalug, Naab Kolsong Na-laam Nyuureb, Prince Isaac Somma told journalists that mining company had some portions of its concession in five communities which, according to him, are part of Namoalug. The communities include Digaare (known as Accra site),Tola, Nung, Bapela, and Biung.
He said the company initially visited the Chief of Namoalug, the Chief of Digaare as well as traditional landowner (Tindana) in the area. The company was fully briefed about the land marks of Namoalug Traditional area during the said visit but, despite the briefing, the company had failed for the past months to recognise the Namoalug Traditional Council in all its dealings in the area.
The disgruntled natives also alleged that company leadership exhibited disrespect to the Chief of Namoalug after the chief wrote a letter to the company inviting its officials for a meeting at the palace.
“It is with great pain to note that prior to the commencement of all these engagements, Cardinal Namdini invited us to a forum to engage us on their operations within our jurisdictional area. We gladly participated in it and with the hope that their operations are to be for our own benefits, we formed good intentions for them and their intended operations.
“It was after this engagement that our palace, together with Digaare Chief, agreed to release some portions of our lands to the company. Subsequently, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) came to the Digaare Palace and thanked us.
“The burning question is what has changed that during the commissioning of Cardinal operations they refused to involve us?” the natives said in a statement read by Prince Isaac at the press conference.
The natives asked the company to suspend all its employment modules until an agreement was signed with employment committees set up by the mining communities and the cardinal company .
The natives also demanded that all compensation packages programmes should be suspended until the rate by the assessment committee was conducted.
“The company should take steps immediately to organize roundtable discussions to resolve these issues. Suspend your employment models until an employment agreement is signed with an employment committee set up by the mining communities and your good self. Suspend the cutting down of our valuable trees until Crop Rate Assessment Committee is set up and approved by us. Suspend all compensation packages until an assessment is conducted by a rate assessment committee,” the statement added.
Efforts to speak to the Community Social Responsibility Officer for Cardinal Mining Company. Mr Kofi Adusei, proved futile.
Mr Adusei, who initially agreed to speak Word News, did not respond to a series of phone calls placed to him and text messages sent to him.
source:mywordfmonline.com/Gaspard Ayuureneeya