Stop embarrassing the intelligence of Ghanaian with Comparison between Johannesburg with Obuasi

Open letter to the Citizens of Ghana to take serious note that Johannesburg was a municipal or city in 1896 with 100,000 people this same year Obuasi was a hamlet with less than 200 people if not a bushy area.

Also the citizens to acknowledge that the mining industry in Ghana has provided and is providing massive contributions to the development of Ghana both in wealth creation and massive employment in 24-hour economy at the Upstream, Middle Stream or the Supply chain, the Down Stream and the Side stream (like ancillary services not direct to the Mining Company) /local business development and growth including contract mining.

Citizen must see the example of the very good work and hardworking of my brother Mr Ibrahim Mahama, who now owns a lot of vehicles and a private jet, a transition from a motorbike after contract mining with Golden Star Resources and Goldfields. So, the Chiefs and people of Central Region must see the mining of Lithium by Atlantic Lithium Ltd as God sent for them to escape from their poverty misery and ignore the ugly noises because the deal is within the current laws of Ghana and better than previous deals and no retroactive law is allowed in Ghana.

My compatriots, please see to the creation of more Ibrahim Mahamas in Ghana, who as stated started with a motorbike without a wheelbarrow. Do not waste time, Lithium is 270 billion in the sea so alternative sources and other sources and it is inflammable, I am sure the burning of the OA Travel Tour bus for Sandema on 17 December 2023 was probably caused by the battery, let us pray it was not lithium battery.

BY MAJOR MOHAMMED BOGOBIRI (RTD)
The discovery of commercial quantities of lithium by Atlantic Lithium Ltd, a foreign exploration Company precisely from Australia which resulted in the Company setting up a subsidiary Company in Ghana with the name Barari DV Ltd as a special purpose vehicle with the view to exploit or Mine the Lithium in Ghana, has once again brought to the front burner, the usual cacophony that mining industry has not contributed massively to the development of Ghana as well as the infantile question why Johannesburg is more developed than Obuasi when the two have gold mines.

These two questions of not much contribution from the Mining Industry and why Obuasi is not developed like Johannesburg in South Africa since both are two locations of endowed Gold mines in the World, have demonstrated our poor knowledge on the Social, economic and Political History of Johannesburg and Obuasi thus a serious embarrassment to the Ghanaian.

Shockingly, amongst the Ghanaians who are making these uninformed and ugly noises are some members of the Intelligentsias or the elites in Ghana who are expected to do comparative analysis on the matters, unfortunately, they thus failed miserably to appreciate the vast contributing factors for the state of affairs.

This had led to the erroneous and unscholarly conclusion that the mining industry has failed to have positive impact on the host community in the Country. An ugly act which has exposed the incompetency and dishonesty of some our compatriots in the academia and the political landscape.

As part of fixing the Better Ghana Agenda, it is high time to provide the correct narrative on the state of affairs. So, this submission to you will speak on the truth on the matter and for you to clearly appreciate the contributing factors that have caused the massive or rapid development of Johannesburg intone of the best city in the World not only in Africa. This will be done dealing separately by give you a gist on the history of Johannesburg and Obuasi.

The history of the development of Johannesburg

Johannesburg was founded in 1887 as a well-planned built area or village or town due to the discovery of gold in commercial quantities in 1886 by a resident of Johannesburg by name George Harrison, an Australian on his farm. This led to the exploitation of the gold in Johannesburg by the residents or the indigenes of Johannesburg as well as the local government.

The wealth so made by the people or Companies was massively reinvested in Johannesburg. This made Johannesburg to become a Municipal by ten years that is by 1896 with the establishment of the seventh University in Africa as Witwatersrand founded in 1896, in Johannesburg after the University of Liberia which was founded in 1862. Note University of Johannesburg was found in 2005.

Johannesburg is South Africa’s principal industrial, commercial and financial hub metropolis. The South Africa Chamber of Mines founded in 1889 and all mining Companies are housed in Johannesburg, The Johannesburg Stock Market was founded in 1887 to raise capital for mining and over 600 companies are listed in it. Consular facilities of most Countries are in Johannesburg. It is the hub for local and international travels with efficient railway system.

Industrialization as you should be aware of, is the tool for massive development due to the creation of massive wealth creation through value addition, it helps in distribution of wealth (my brother Mr Ibrahim Mahama is an example) due to four streams of Downstream, Middle stream and Upstream and the Sides stream or ancillary services like transporter (taxis, trotro), food vendors and massive employment due to the development of the 24hours economy. Johannesburg as stated is the home of over 100 industries with some of them as old as the City.

One of the notable industries out of the numerous industries in Johannesburg is in the Gold Mining Industry. That is the Rand Gold Refinery in the outskirt of Johannesburg. Rand refinery was established in 1920, it has refined 60,000 tonnes of gold almost one third of all the gold ever mined worldwide, It is an independent company with a board appointed by shareholders, It focus in (a) Refining. (b) Electrolytic refining (c). Smelting (d) Analysis services (e). Beneficiation (f). Vaulting Services. (g) Products of for Jewelry manufacturing and dental industries.

Greater Johannesburg is a city of glass and skyscrapers, international universities, urban with, 4 66. Million people and Mining was stopped Johannesburg in 1977.

Johannesburg is one of the global tourists center with a number Museums including the Apartheid Museum of South Africa and with Public Library established in 1889 hence it one of the Oldest Market in Africa.

Obuasi in Ghana
Unlike Johannesburg which was almost city by 1895, Obuasi in 1895 was far from being termed as a hamlet, it was a very bushy area when the Obuasi Mine was discovered in 1895 by three Fanti Brothers from Central Region. Hence unlike resident or what be termed as indigene miners of Johannesburg who made wealth from mining and reinvested in Johannesburg, the three miners who found the Obuasi Mine were not from Obuasi or Ashanti Region and currently most miners in Obuasi are immigrants and not residents or indigenes of Obuasi or even from the Ashanti Region.

The Fanti brothers were forced to sell the Obuasi Mine to a British and unlike the miners of Johannesburg who invested their monies in Johannesburg thus contributed to the massive development in Johannesburg, unfortunately the miners of Obuasi since 1895 to date carried the wealth out of Obuasi. An example is Dr Sam Jonah, one time CEO of AGC when Ghana was the majority shareholder before 2004 and as CEO of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana. Dr Jonah of Ghana has rather decided to invest massively in Johannesburg. Gold from Ghana in the past was and is currently sold to Refineries in South Africa So Ghana and her Nationals (Ghanaian) miners from Obuasi and others also contributed greatly to the development of Johannesburg and failed or effused to invest in the areas where they got their wealth.

Miners who operated in Obuasi in the colonial days were mainly immigrants from the North and the Sub Region because the people of Ashanti Region, hence Obuasi initially were afraid to go underground due to a fear of a possible encounter with spirits and thus concentrated in Cocoa farming which was fetching a lot of money. So, Obuasi Mines was operated by immigrants (note Obuasi has a suburb named as Bogobiri this tell that people from the North etc operated the mine). As stated most of the, miners in Obuasi like Dr Sam Jonah sent their monies outside without investing or creating a major footprint with their money in Obuasi. This is not the situation in Johannesburg. The people spent most of the money in Johannesburg.

It must be noted a Government is expected to provide the economic and social infrastructures for the public including for the three economic sectors namely the Agricultural Sector, Service Sector and the Industrial Sector which includes the mining sector and manufacturing sector. This what has happened and is happening in Johannesburg. This is not so in Ghana at Mining areas which is within the Industrial Sector, so blaming mining companies for this state of affairs is not acceptable.

The Industrial Sector which includes mining activities pay levies, taxes including corporate tax, Employees PAYE, royalties against the infrastructure to be provided by the Government for the economic development of Ghana. The industrialization is therefore the rear game changer in the provision of the expected three shift system of eight hours per shift which will enhance in the 24 hour economy being sloganeering. . It must be noted as stated above Johannesburg is a well-planned city but the development plan of Obuasi has been haphazardly done.

Why the State should not make a sad mistake to invest in Mining

In 1972, the Government of Ghana with General Acheampong as the Head of State nationalized Ashanti Gold Company (AGC) Obuasi with controlling 55 percent stake and with time, the annual production of gold dropped sharply to 230,000 from 530,000 ounces of gold. During the regime of President Liman, the situation was so bad that the Liman Administration had to take a loan of 111million dollars to recapitalize the Mine.

Enter regime of the NDC under President Rawlings, AGC was listed through an initial Public Offers in the three Stock Markets namely the New York Stock Exchange, London Exchange and Ghana Stock Exchange. The government was lucky that it got 330Million Dollars when Ashanti Gold was listed on the US Stock Market and unfortunately not much of this money was used for Obuasi.

In 1993 or so some of us as the shareholders of AGC Obuasi woke up to realize that our daily light suddenly changed into darkness when we heard that our investment in the shares at AGC, which we bought at 25 US Dollars per share suddenly became toilet paper when it dropped to 3 US Dollars per share below the striking price. It was a very big funeral for some of us, so some foreign Shareholders took the matter to Court accusing the Company for the deceit.

In 2004 alleged viability of the Obuasi Mine and the Tarkwa Mine at Iduaprim cussed a merger with AngloGold of South Africa (Johannesburg) to form AngloGold Ashanti Ghana and between 2004 and 2010, annual production was reportedly below 400,000 ounces per year with cost for producing increasing from 198 dollar to 630 dollars.

The, cost of production at the Obuasi Mine reportedly rose to 1,800 dollars per ounce, this happened a decade later in 2014 due to the issue of the power problem of dumsor or unstable power and which caused further increase in cost of production. Management therefore declared Unaffordable financial loses in 2014 so the Head Office in Johannesburg shut down the operation for care and maintenance or restructuring while looking for investors.

This caused the closure of the mine in 2014 for restructuring hence it was put under care and maintenance and it suffered total collapse in 2016 due to illegal mining activities as per the statement of his Royal Majesty the Ashantehene that no one was ready to buy it for a pesewas.

In 2017 the economic details showed that 46 percent of Ghana export earnings and 16 percent in domestic revenue came from the Mining Sector. Hence the contribution of the Mining Industry in 2hour economy is massive.

It is the failure of the government in using enough money from the contributions of the mining sector to develop the mining communities that is the problem. This may be so due to the Constitutional provision at section 6 of Article 257 of the 1992 Constitution that the minerals belong to the people of Ghana hence payments of revenue into the consolidated fund as commanded at Article 176 of the 1992 Constitution.

According to the Ghana Chamber of Mines, it paid GHC550 Million in Royalties from the Large Scale Mining Companies in 2016 but only 27million was given to the local government authorities of the mining communities.

This amount of GHC27million was dissipated too widely to the Traditional Councils, District Assemblies, Stool Land Administration, and Minerals Development Fund (MDF) thus made it insufficient or ineffective as indicated by CEO of the Minerals Commission Hon Mr Sulemanu Koney to meet developmental projects.

According to the CEO of the Chamber of Mines, the share of the District Assembly should go to MDF for it to make developmental impact otherwise the District Assemblies normally spent the money on wages,, goods and services, thus the government has been diverting cash for development of the affected communities to meet her operational cost problem not for the development of the affected areas hence the mining companies cannot be blamed for the poor development. It is for this reason that the payment of one percent as in the Lithium mining deal into a Community Development Fund is a welcome news for the affected communities besides sharing in the royalties as well. The Companies also provide Corporate Social Responsibility to their affected Communities.

To conclude, the comparison of Obuasi with Johannesburg is unprofessional and erroneous due to the massive differences in their history with that of Johannesburg as very superior. The extractive industry kept the economy of Ghana vibrant, the mining sector essential contributed about 5billion dollars in 2016.

Lithium is abundant in the World and it’s available in seawater as brine together with sodium which may soon be a better alternative to Lithium which can cause inflame of the engine. I suspect the recent burning of the VIP bus due to a battery problem and not the engine.