Asanda Farmers Association has waded into the raging controversy surrounding the unlawful revocation of the mining lease of Northern Ashanti Mines describing the revocation by the Minerals Commission as harsh.
In an interview with the media on Tuesday, the Secretary of Asanda Farmers Association, Mr. Aidoo Emmanuel expressed worry over Minerals Commissions’ appetite and penchant for revoking licenses of indigenous mines when there are several options of remedying the situation.
Mr. Aidoo maintained that dialogue should be the priority of the Minerals Commission instead of always revoking licenses adding that Government stands to benefit when the company is in operation than shutting it down.
“Granted Northern Ashanti Mines owes 8.3 billion as they claim how do they recover that money if the company is shut down.
Rather you guide them to do the right thing so they generate enough to pay the debt. That should be the best way to go not revocation”, Mr. Aidoo emphasized.
He said he learnt that Minerals Commission did not notify the company as enshrined in the law before revoking the company’s license describing the action as unfair.
“As it stands now there should be discussions between Government and Northern Ashanti Mines so that if there is loopholes with regards to the operation of the Mines then you can ask her to put things in the right direction” the Secretary of the Association stressed.
“But for you to suddenly revoke the license, I don’t think is fair to a Woman who has employed many Ghanaians across her mining companies and respected beyond the borders of Ghana”, he added.
Asked how the revocation concerns the Farmer group, Mr. Aidoo explained that they are a beneficiary of the operations of the Mining Company as most of their children he said, have been employed by the company thus making life comfortable their children and relatives.
He warned that revocation of the licenses of indigenous Mining Companies could spell doom for the country urging government to see huge redundancy to be created as a result of the lease revocation as a national security issue.
Mr. Aidoo is therefore appealing to government to intervene and grant reprieve to Northern Ashanti Mines just as it did to Adamus and guide the company to work viably.
The revocation of Northern Ashanti Mines has since received backlash from the Public and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), many of whom have described it as unlawful.
One of such CSOs is the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), whose Chair, Dr Steve Manteaw, said the outstanding statutory debt alone should not be sufficient grounds for revoking the mining lease of Northern Ashanti Mines, urging the government to negotiate payment arrangements with the company
He argues that keeping a mining business operational should be in the interest of regulators because it enables the company to generate revenue and settle its outstanding obligations.
He appealed to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to find a less acrimonious way of handling the matter, warning that the current approach could undermine confidence in the government’s commitment to promoting local ownership of the mining sector.
“It’s not turning well on the government,” he added
