Story: George Ernest Asare, Obuasi
THE Manager for Planning and Development of AngloGold Ashanti, Mr Bashiru Ahmed, has cautioned that the activities of illegal miners in the concessions of the company may lead to the collapse of the mine.
He said the rate at which the illegal miners had intensified their operations, especially the blasting of the strategic rocks underground as well as the stealing of cables and other facilities would greatly affect the company and also undermine the sustainable growth of the national economy.
Mr Ahmed was speaking to the Daily Graphic to outline the recent blasting of the Adansi Shaft of the mines by a section of illegal miners and its effect on their operations and future expansions.
He said “the year 2007 would go down in history as the period where illegal gold miners nearly succeeded in wresting the concession of AngloGold Ashanti from the hands of management to enable them assume full control of the mines without any obligations to the state and the communities in our catchment area”.
“ It is very unfortunate that the galamseyers have now taken their operations in deep mines, and at areas that are very strategic to us”, he bemoaned adding, “ the blasting of the Adansi Shaft a few months ago is very dangerous because the rocks which could be described as the soul of the mines form pillars that hold the underground mining together, and any attempt to blast it would cause the mines to collapse” .
He said the need to protect the Adansi Shaft was very important and key to sustainable operations of underground mining.
He said efforts to control the illegal miners at the Adansi Shaft and other strategic areas had proved futile because unlike their workers who are not armed, the galamseyers are always fully armed.
He said apart from the Adansi Shaft, the galamseyers had also taken their operations to the Kodo area of the upper mines reserved for future operations and Sanso where they are blasting concrete walls protecting any form of flooding to the mines and communities in their catchment area.
He said the continuous operations of the galamseyers in those areas could break the concrete walls and “ in case of any heavy rainfall it could lead to heavy flooding to destroy lives and property”.
Barely two months ago, six illegal gold miners, trapped in the deep at the Obuasi mine of AngloGold Ashanti, made a dramatic escape after launching an attack on security personnel who had gone down to effect their arrest.
The six galamsey operators, trapped 2300 feet underground at the Adansi Shaft and armed with explosives, knives, machetes and other dangerous weapons, attacked the security men on guard in the underground mines and succeeded in escaping through some of the channels.
This came barely a week after the illegal miners battled security men at Obuasi and escaped from the deep mines where they were trapped for some days.
Prior to their escape, the galamseyers had pelted security men, officials of AngloGold and media men who had gone underground to investigate with stones.
Apart from the numerous cable theft carried out by the galamseyers at the concession areas that undermined the operations of the company, the galamseyers also carried their operation deep down into the underground area to below 2300 feet, and succeeded in blasting some of the pillars at the Adansi Shaft regarded as the soul of the mines .
According to the miners, the pillars blasted by the galamseyers at the Adansi Shaft is very rich in gold ore, but had been left untouched because any attempt to blast it would lead to the collapse of the underground mines.
Less than two weeks after the blast of the Adansi Shaft, other galamseyers armed with explosives and assorted weapons were more ferocious and deadly when they again attacked the stock-pad area of AngloGold Ashanti.
Armed with locally manufactured pistols, machetes, clubs and assorted hammers, about 100 of them who had laid ambush at the site, struck with precision at the stock-pad area where rocks rich in gold ore are dumped and subjected 12 Ghanatta Private Security men guarding the ore to severe beatings before carrying tonnes of the ore away in sacks.
They left in their trail six of the private security men severely injured with two of them in very critical condition.
Apart from attacking the security men and carrying away their booty on Friday, November 23, 2007, some of the galamseyers also damaged one of the transmitters that supplied power to the southern section of AngloGold Obuasi when they attempted to cut away cables that supplied power to the area which affected power supply at sections of the mines thus undermining productivity.
These and many other criminal activities are some of the havoc being meted out to the management and staff of AngloGold Obuasi in the name of galamsey while the major stakeholders look on unconcerned.
While some of the galamseyers die from rocks that fall on them in the course of their operations, others are maimed for life but in the end it is their sponsors who get the lions share of their booty and squander them without any form of taxes to the state to sustain the socio-economic development.
Mr Bashiru said apart from the numerous projects AngloGold had splashed out to the communities such as the provision of schools, hospitals, roads and bridges, potable water and power supply, it had also implemented a malaria control programme and solid waste management to prevent the spread of malaria and create hygienic environment that enhances the health status of residents of the Obuasi Municipality and its environs.
He said last year alone the company spent as much as $1,501,966 on projects to improve education, sanitation, community development projects as well as malaria control and art culture and heritage.
Mr Bashiru said it was time the government machinery intervened to remove illegal miners from the mine to prevent them from the deliberate destruction of company property.
The Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti, Mr John Miller, also expressed concern about the rampant destruction of the company’s facilities by the galamseyers over the years and said apart from the huge cost of repairing the facilities, it also made it difficult for the company to sustain the development projects in the communities.
“ It takes us a lot of money to put back the facilities to enable us resume operation, and this should raise concern among all stakeholders,” he noted.
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