Yenyeya Small Scale Mining Group and Porbotaaba Small Scale Mining Group operating underground mining in Gbane in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region are calling on the Minerals Commission and, by extension, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to grant them medium- or large-scale mining licenses in order to expand their operations.
Shaanxi Mining Company Limited, a subsidiary of China Gold Resources Group Company, is providing technical support services to the two companies with huge investment in the area of machinery, technology and technical expertise.
The Gbane community is the heart of gold mine in the Region with a lot of mining activities.
Adjunct activities bring more income to residents far and near. Small scale miners, illegal miners and technical support service companies are all engaged in mining in the area.
In recent times, there has been a lot of issues between small scale miners and a Chinese company providing technical service support to two small-scale mining companies on the legalities of their operations.
www.3news.com visited the site of Shaanxi Mining Company to ascertain the kind of mining they engage in.
The visit was to find out if mining in that town is different from the illegal mining activities going on in other parts of the country and in Gbane.
On arrival at the yard of the company, 3news.com found heavy mining equipment and gold production facilities.
These facilities process gold from the ore stage to the final extraction of the natural resource.
All workers at the Company were in protective wears and all working areas have warning signs to protect workers and visitors from disasters.
The kind of mining 3news.com’s team witnessed is a deep underground mining where the extraction of the ore is done with advanced technology that does not have negative impact.
Due to the activities underground, water is drawn from the rocks and then transported upstream for the process of the gold.
Here, no water body is compromised or trees destroyed to pave way for mining.
The team together with the Underground Mine Engineer went underground in one of the five shafts of the Company.
The shaft the team entered has seven levels and were sent to Level Five, which is 220 meters deep in earth.
At this level, the team met miners numbering about 50 with their protective wears working at different work schedules.
There was enough ventilation underground with the help of an underground air condition system.
CCTVs and other technical equipment were installed for easy mining and regulations.
After the tour underground, the Public Relations Officer of the Shaanxi Mining Company, Maxwell Woomah, said the Company has employed 552 workers who are residents of Gbane community, where the mining is going on and has undertaken a lot of social responsibilities in the area of health, education, bridge construction and community philanthropy.
He said the company is currently sponsoring nine brilliant but needy SHS students from the Talensi District.
On the issue of environmental degradation, Mr Woomah said the Company has effective environmental policies that are recovering already mined lands since operations started nine years ago.
A lot of trees have been planted to replace felled ones.
He said safety is a priority for the Company and every working area has warning signs and workers have been trained on safety management.
The Managing Director of the Yenyeya Small Scale Mining Group, Charles Ndanbon, said due to success chalked over the years in mining, they are appealing to the Minerals Commission to grant them a medium- or large-scale mining license because they have the capacity to operate as such.
He said with the medium- or large-scale mining, about 1,500 of unemployed youth will be employed and more gold will be mined to increase Ghana’s export and import receipt.
The Underground Mine Engineer, Thomas Tii Yenzaanya, explained that safety and environmental procedures are adhered to in the Company.
The Production Manager, Zhao Guang Sheng, through his interpreter said the company has acquired every working documents to support these two small-scale mining companies and that they as Chinese partners are not involved in direct small-scale mining but will wish if they grant the two small-scale mining companies a permit to go medium- or large-scale mining.
By Rabiu Tanko Mohammed|3news.com|Ghana