Azumah Resources, a gold mining company in the Upper West Region, has announced that it has discovered gold in large quantities in some parts of the Nadowli/Kaleo and Wa East Districts but was yet to commence mining activities in the area.
The company said it needed approximately $200 million to enable it to cater for infrastructure, equipment and compensations, among others, before mining commences.
The Head of Community Relations and Environment of Azumah Resources, Mr Solomon Dery, disclosed this on Thursday at Funsi during the first ordinary meeting of the fourth session of the fourth Wa East District Assembly.
The management of the company was invited to the assembly meeting to brief members on their operations and to respond to issues related to security as far as the company was concerned.
Mr Dery explained that Azumah Resources acquired license to officially operate in the Nadowli/Kaleo District in 2006 and in the Wa East District in 2010, but had since been prospecting and was yet to go into mining.
He noted that about 77 per cent of the company’s employees were from the Upper West Region and added that more indigenes would be employed when full scale mining began.
Responding to queries about military attacks on some communities in Azumah Resource’s operational areas, the Security Manager for the company, Major (rtd) John Irkeche Zampore, denied that the company had a hand in the activities of the military, and said they were members of “Operation Calm Life” to clamp down on illegal mining activities.
In his sectional address, the Wa East District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Moses Jotie, noted that the district was relatively peaceful in spite of pockets of violence that existed in respect of felling of rosewood tress, one of which claimed two lives, and reminded the people of the ban on logging of the tree species in the country.
He, therefore, emphasised the need for all stakeholders, including traditional leaders and Assembly Members to be peace ambassadors and to also report persons who engaged in logging of the trees to the police for appropriate action to be taken against them.
On agriculture, the DCE implored the youth to take advantage of the government’s flagship programmes including the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) and Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ), to reduce the high rate of youth unemployment in the country.
He added that sites had been handed over in two communities – Kataa and Funsi – for the construction of dams under the One-Village-One-Dam (1V1D) initiative, with that of Kataa being 80 per cent completed.
“It is my expectation that these interventions in addition to the Planting for Food and Jobs programme will contribute enormously to creating sustainable jobs, and will add the district to the food basket zones of the country”, Mr Jotie explained.
Touching on health, he explained that work was progressing steadily on the Wa East District Hospital at Funsi, the district Capital with the Out-Patient Department (OPD), Consulting Rooms and office complex near completion.
Construction of other departments including; General Ward, Theatre and Recovery Wards, Mr Jotie said, would soon commence, and added that some Community Health Planning Services (CHPS) compound in the district were connected to the national grid to improve health care delivery to the people.
LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, FUNSI
