AngloGold launches Obuasi Community Trust Fund

Obuasi, Sep 14, GNA – Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, has urged communities within AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), Obuasi Mine concession to refrain from activities that would impede operations of the company.

He advised all artisanal miners to stay away from the company's mining area to enable the company to have uninterrupted operations to enhance productivity.

The Regional Minister made the call in a speech read for him at the launch of the company's Obuasi Community Trust Fund at Obuasi. The Fund is expected to facilitate economic development in Obuasi and its environs.

Dr Agyemang-Mensah said the government was concerned about encroachment by artisanal miners, sometimes in collaboration with illegal foreign immigrants on concessions of AGA.

Mr Frederick Attakumah, Vice President, Sustainability of AGA, said the establishment of the Trust Fund at Obuasi and Induapriem was a giant step in the company's community relations efforts at accelerating economic development in those areas.

He said the Obuasi Fund had, as at the end of last year, accrued GH¢5.4 million and expressed the hope that the fund would become one of the key vehicles for development.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Mr. Ben Aryee, said illegal mining had become a threat to national cohesion, security and even livelihoods.

He appealed to those who had been condoning illegal mining to put a stop to it and rather encourage prospective small scale miners to regularize their operation.

The launch coincided with the donation of eight 15-seater Toyata mini buses to Senior High Schools in Obuasi Municipal, Adansi North, South and Amansie Central Districts and 110 desktop computers to Senior and Junior High Schools by AGA and the Fund.

Under the stability agreement with the government in 2004, mining companies were to pay 1 per cent of its annual profits into a Trust Fund for community development initiatives.

GNA