Nana Akore Korsah, Spokesperson for the affected residents
OVER 500 farmers and inhabitants of Johnsonkrom and Donkorkrom in the Yawhima Electoral Area in the Sunyani Municipality have passed a resolution kicking against the proposed surface gold mining in the area.
The residents have therefore asked the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Kwasi Oppong Ababio, not to grant mineral concessions to any company to mine in the area.
Their objection to the proposed surface mining in the area is based on the fact that ?there has been disregard for communities? right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC).?
They have, in effect, petitioned the Regional Minister, Paul Evans Aidoo, the MP for the area, Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh, the Dormaahene who is the custodian of those lands, Regional Police Commander, among other bodies, to come to their aid by stopping the deal to ensure lasting peace in the area.
?Owing to the untold calamities that will befall present-day inhabitants of the area and the potential environmental disaster that will occur in the wake of surface gold mining activities, which will lead to the destruction of the many cocoa and crop farms, and the negative mass effect of posterity, we humbly call on the Hon. Regional Minister to use his good offices to prevent any such mining companies which are in the process of starting exploration and consequent mining activities from doing so.? This was contained in a resolution signed by about hundred residents.
DAILY GUIDE has in its possession a document signed by Mr. Oppong Ababio granting the mining concessions to 40 small-scale mining enterprises to mine in the affected communities.
The MCE in the Notice of Publication of Application dated December 27, 2013, however, gave the residents and farmers in the two communities a January 17, 2014 ultimatum to bring forward their concerns or forever rest their case.
?Notice is hereby given that the following companies have applied to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources for a grant of Minerals Prospecting/Reconnaissance license in respect on the Dormaa Stool Lands, in the Sunyani Municipality of Brong Ahafo Region.
?Any person having objection to the area being granted to the applicant(s) should communicate the grounds of his/her objection to this office not later than Friday 17th January, 2014,? the notice stated.
Spokesperson for the affected farmers, Nana Akore Korsah, told DAILY GUIDE that nobody had ever met with the people in the affected communities to discuss issues about the said mining prospecting.
He said the communities were thereby shocked to receive the Notice of Publication of Application listing various small-scale mining enterprises which had been allocated some acres of their farmlands to mine.
FROM Fred Tettey Alarti-Amoako, Sunyani
