Newmont Ghana Exposed!
By Ato Keelson & Stephen Darko
Investigations have revealed that Newmont's final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) document on its intended mining project dubbed the “Akyem Project” in the North Brim in the Eastern Region has been kept secret from the larger Ghanaian public.
Although Mrs Adiki O. Ayitevie, the Regional Manager, Communications, admitted in a telephone interview that copies of the 2008 April draft EIS were made available to non-governmental organizations and government agencies last year, she could not tell our reporter whether copies of the final EIS have given to NGOs and civil society agencies.
Our findings further confirmed that the only agency that has a copy of the company's final EIS on the Akyem Project is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which basically approved it and granted them the Environmental Permit in February this year.
However, in an exclusive interview with the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms Sherry Aryittey in her office, she admitted that she has not even seen a copy of Newmont's final EIS document on the Akyem Project.
When the paper asked the Minister whether EPA granted Newmont Mining Corporation the Environmental Permit in February this year, she asserted… “That is neither here nor there, and that under EPA Act 491, it has the mandate to revoke such licenses.”
She further disclosed that her outfit has received petitions from international human rights activists, environmental experts and from the indigenes in the areas against the Project, and would be addressing those concerns appropriately.
“I have received petitions from human rights organizations and the communities in the North Brim and would be writing to Newmont very soon,” disclosed Ms Ayittey.
Further, the paper's interactions with civil society groups and NGOs such as Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) revealed that none of them have received from Newmont its final EIS document on the Akyem Project.
This new strategy by the mining company, our reporters gathered from the civil society groups and NGOs including some opinion leaders in North Birim was a strategy to keep them in the dark and to prevent them from sharing their views on the project.
“If Newmont thought it wise to give us copies of the April 2008 draft EIS document on the Akyem Project, what is preventing them from making available to us the final document, when they have told you [that is the paper] that it was approved in February this year,” queried an environmental expert.
Mrs Ayitevie relayed to our News Editor in the interview that her outfit during the draft stage of the EIS document engaged in 'extensive public consultations' with the indigenes in the areas where the mining project would be embarked upon.
“And because some of them could not read the draft EIS document, what we did was to segment them in poster forms which we then read to them for them to share their views on the project,” said the Regional Communications Manager.
According to her, the public consultations her outfit had with the communities last year enabled them to have an overwhelming support from the indigenes.
This, she explained, was against the background that the local people freely shared their frank views on the proposed mining project in their communities in the North Brim.