Ghanaian Mine Co. Deserves Protection - NGO Stresses

A civil society and a non- governmental organization, Community Rights Foundation (CRIF) has asked the Ghana government to offer reasonable protection to the one (1) only wholly Ghanaian owned Mining Company, HANSOL MINING and its Chinese service support providing partners in order forestall a possible collapse of the entity.

In a statement issued in Accra by the Foundation on Monday April 1st 2013 and signed by the Executive Director- Edward Kwasi Akuoko, the NGO noted that the bias actions of some state institutions such as the National Security and the Ghana Immigration Service is threatening the Operations and survival of the only Ghanaian Mine establishment, and has therefore called on government to intervene.

According to the NGO, a recent study conducted on the operations of Mining Companies in the country has shown a huge bias on the part of state institutions especially the security wing, against the Ghanaian Company as compared to the other wholly or partially foreign owned Mine Companies.

It cited the constant harassment of legally working Chinese nationals who are the bane of service support provision in the area of affordable/ cheap equipment technology and maintenance for the Company as a very unfortunate development.

“If nationals of other countries such as US, Australia, India, Canada, South Africa etc are providing similar or same service supports to other Mine companies under Ghanaian mining laws, why should a similar service rendered by the Chinese be criminalized under same laws” Are the Chinese citizens inferior humans to those other nationals? Mr. Akuoko asked.

The NGO noted that its findings also revealed that HANSOL MINE is one of the major suppliers of finished gold to the nation’s Mineral processing entity, Precious Minerals & Marketing Co-operation (PMMC) with a total street value worth millions of dollars of gold supplied to the latter by HANSOL in 2012 alone, therefore its collapse will have negative repercussions for the state Mineral processor.

Additionally Mr. Akuoko noted that HANSOL mining alone paid in excess of a million dollars in direct taxes to Ghana government in year 2012 alone, whiles creating job opportunities for thousands of Ghanaians.

Aside its gold mining unit, HANSOL is capable of enhancing the country’s image as an emerging truck manufacturer as it recently began assembling locally, for the Agric and construction industry, the WONTUMI GRIFFON series of trucks specifically made for the Ghanaian and African terrain.

Mr. Akuoko said its study also uncovered efforts by the Company to launch onto the Ghanaian market a vegetable and protein milk processing machine meant for use within homes to enhance the protein intake level of Ghanaians at affordable rates, and therefore think that such an establishment deserve some level of state protection to flourish.

The executive director of CRIF however advised management of the Company to as a matter of urgency established a in house Public Affairs or Public Relations department, if there is none, to effectively serve as its mouth piece and advocate so as to ensure that its reputation as a good cooperate citizen is enhanced, adding that any company without a good Public Relations has already undermined the effectiveness of its management and compromised its credibility.

He further re-iterated that that with an effective Public affairs and community entry mechanism, most of the community relations conflict and negative perception about its operations could have been averted.

The statement finally commended government’s swift response to a petition send to the presidency by Ghana China Business Chamber of Commerce (GCBCC) of which HANSOL is a member, calling on the president to deal swiftly with concerns raised so as to engender business confidence.