Hundreds of “starving” mineworkers at the Shaanxi Mining (Gh) Ltd in the Upper East Region have rallied against government’s “long delay” in calling them back to work after the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources closed down the company indefinitely in May.
The company, situated at Gbani in the Talensi District, had announced its suspension of mining operations from Thursday May 4, this year, sending 552 workers home, after receiving a directive on Tuesday May 2, 2017, from the ministry to shut down.
The indefinite closure, as contained in a letter signed by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, was to allow for a thorough conduct of investigations into some alleged deliberate killings underground of indigenous miners with mining explosives by the Chinese employees of the company.
“Each day, some of us walk to the administration, demanding information on when we shall return to work. Others also call on their cell phones, demanding same. All we get as responses from our management is, ‘We are waiting for the Hon. Minister to determine’. Saddening is the fact that for one month now, we have not earned any pesewa to take care of us and our many dependants.
“We are married with wives, husbands, children and parents. Since we were sent home, payment of fees for our children for the term has been extremely difficult, with most of us indebted to food vendors, landlords and challenging healthcare access,” Rockson Edusei, a senior employee of the mining firm and spokesperson for the angry hungry workers, stated Wednesday at a news conference attended by scores of suspended workers.
Elizabeth Yinama, a matron at the company who told Starr News she had 3 children to cater for, yelled: “The suspension is affecting us seriously. Some of the workers here are students who work here to raise money to support their education. We even have some men here who do petty business in town and it is through the salaries they get from here that they are able to maintain their business. Most of the underground workers are not educated. Their survival depends on Shaanxi.”
Some of the employees had, on the day the company suspended operations in May, threatened to resort to a life of armed thieving if they eventually lost their jobs in the aftermath of the closure.
“I completed senior high school in 2002. If I go home now, what am I going to do? I’m just going to join armed robbery gangs. I have three children. And to be honest, I also have a girlfriend who is also pregnant for me. Apart from this Shaanxi, there are no jobs in this area. If Shaanxi closes down, we’ll be armed robbers,” Victor Azaare had told Starr News moments after the management had dispatched its staff home.
Illegal Miners “take over” Shaanxi Pits
The agitated workers also announced that hundreds of illegal miners in the community had taken advantage of government’s suspension orders by taking over mining pits belonging to the two local mining groups- Yenyeya and Pubortaaba- to whom the Shaanxi Mining Company Limited is rendering technical support services.
They also lamented alleged involvement of minors in the “illegal” invasion of their mine as well as alleged underground looting of the pits occupied by the company, saying it could result in another disaster underground.
“Apart from our personal challenges, our mine has been terribly occupied by illegal miners. The few staff kept to maintain and care for the mine have been overwhelmed by hundreds of illegal miners who invade the underground workings, blast support pillars, break equipment and electrical fittings, steal ore and dangerously prevent the men from pumping water. These actions of theirs will cause the following if not checked immediately:
“Mine is weakened following the blasts of the support pillars. This can cause caving in any moment. The use of minors by the illegal mining kingpin poses danger to their operation. They are inexperienced and will one day blast themselves up. The area will be flooded if they continue to block our colleagues from pumping the underground water,” Mr. Edusei pointed out.
He added: “Safety is our number-one goal. A lasting solution will be the sector minister to expedite action in his investigation and to grant us permission to resume work. We want to emphasise that we together with our families and dependants want our work back and not the deportation of legitimate investors as it is being demanded by some uninformed groups within our community. We are environmentally safe with state-of-the-art setup, tailings dam to contain waste. We do not have any devastating link with any water body in this area.”
Minerals Commission ‘grabs’ Shaanxi’s Land for Rival
The Minerals Commission also came under verbal attacks at the news conference for allegedly ‘grabbing’ parts of the concession originally meant for Shaanxi and its local partners and ceded it to a rival company, Cassius Mining Limited.
“In August 2016, the Minerals Commission granted the area to Shaanxi Mining (Gh) Ltd but with variations as to the areas of interest. In September, the Commission went further to effect changes to the map granted us and, unfortunately without recourse to our Chief Executive, cut out some good portion of this concession and granted it to Cassius Mining Limited. Part of this area cut for Cassius falls in our current operational area dangerously causing an overlap. It is technically unwise to have two large-scale enterprises overlap in their boundaries. This is what the Commission has done.
“Recently, we have observed that the new mining company, Cassius Mining Ltd, has erected pillars to demarcate an area for their operations part of which falls within our current operational area. This company has already commenced diamond drilling on the demarcated area where we have already done diamond drilling work. We, therefore, propose the sector minister revokes the current licence of Cassius Mining Ltd and sanction them for illegally going through the licence acquisition process and the Minerals Commission should award the Shaanxi Mining (Gh) Ltd the entire area it applied for as contained in the 2015 letter of application to the Minerals Commission,” the workers protested strongly in a statement read out by Mr. Edusei.