By Dominic Hlordzi-Radio Ghana
The Ghana Chamber of Mines has reiterated the need for the Government of Ghana to increase the allocation of mining royalties to the District Assemblies to enable them to undertake significant projects for the benefit of people in mining communities. The Public Affairs and Environmental Director of the Chamber, Ahmed Nantogmah said this at an Oil, Gas and Mining Course sponsored by the Natural Resource Governance Institute and Penplusbytes for selected journalists in Accra.
He observed that the present ten percent of the total royalties Mining Companies pay to government which is allocated to the mining communities is inadequate, adding that the communities’ share should be increase to thirty percent.
“Communities keep complaining that they are not seeing the benefits of mining, especially those around the mines. They bear the brunt of mining but they don’t see what mining is giving them but we know that government takes all the royalties and sent back only ten percent for distribution to the communities. We hope that if government increased the ten percent to say thirty percent and tie it to specific projects that are tagged mineral royalties’ projects the benefit will be visible to the people”
This he stated if done will enable the people to cite the projects as their share of mineral revenues. He noted that presently there is nothing like that in the communities but rather one can see HIPC toilets and HIPC schools. “There is no royalty school when royalties are been paid to the government. We think that if government increases the money it will help in the development of the communities. “He stated.
Mr. Nantogmah also suggested that the money be tied to specific projects for a specific period and regulated by law so that the royalties cannot be misused. The Chamber also called for the promulgation of a new mineral revenue law akin to the Petroleum Revenue Management Law so that leaders will spend mineral revenues according to the regulations and provisions in the Law. Mr. Nantogmah asked regulators to ensure responsible mining by eliminating illegal mining.
The Africa Regional Social Responsibility Manger of Newmont, Emmanuel Ato Aubynn said the biggest challenge of the Company presently is how to strategies to survive in what he termed the turbulence period of the industry. He noted that about a month ago the Gold price was about 1,400 Dollars per ounces but today it is hovering around 1,235 Dollars per ounces and so within a cycle of one month one can imagine how the price has reduced. “So if you are working in an industry with unpredictable price that you sell your products it becomes very difficult to actually plan and as a result the news about redundancy in the sector actually happened because we have to think first about the business survivability before thinking about individuals.” Mr. Aubynn stated.
He explained that Newmont has operated for ninety years and the Mangers are determined to sustain the vision of wanting to operate for a very long time and as a result the past leaders took the right decision to survive the business.
“We are close to the books and we know how the heat is affecting us. People sitting out might think that because in our parlance Gold is money therefore who ever mines it is quite rich. Somebody outside might think that we are making money.”
The Africa Regional Social Responsibility Manger said the Company strongly believes that things might turn around so at this time that it may be operating at break-even point or any other level of profitability it hopes that if things reorganize very effectively the situation might change because the gold industry is cyclical, today the price is up, tomorrow the price is down.
Mr. Aubynn was emphatic “We don’t want to close the mine. Once we close the mine totally it will affect Ghana, it will affect the communities, it will affect employees and so we still believe that we can sustain it and be able to improve things in the coming years.”
The Programme was organized by Penplusbytes together with Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) on the theme “Strengthening Media Oversight of the Extractive Sectors: Reporting on Oil, Gas and Mining” Course B training workshop.
It is aimed at building the capacity of journalists to positively influence the transparent and accountable management of mining, oil and gas industries in Ghana.
The workshop builds on an earlier programme for Ugandans, Tanzanians and Ghanaians Journalists held at the Africa Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) in Kampala, Uganda in June 2014.
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