The Obuasi mine issue

A picture I saw and an attached post caused my heart to miss a beat. I said to myself “oh no, not again” The story was about some illegal miners who had breached the fence around Anglogold Ashanti Mine and had entered the property and had been shot by military men protecting the property.

This is not the first time such an incident had occurred in Obuasi and it is about time a solution was found to it. When such incidents occur, powers that be suddenly switch to fire fighting mode and start to initiate all sorts of directives but within a few weeks when things have blown over everybody goes to sleep.

No permanent solutions are outlined and a few years later, the issue rears its ugly head again.

It was announced that school children should not attend school for a couple of days and just imagine the number of children who will be staying at home due to this incident?

Again consider parents who will be inconvenienced by this directive as they have to make arrangements for people to look after their kids who would normally be in school, allowing the parents to go to work.

There are reports of de­struction of property belong­ing to Anglogold Ashanti by some persons believed to be friends of the murdered men.

In fact a statement has been issued by Anglogold Ashanti, warning its employ­ees to avoid wearing work uniforms in town till further notice. This is to ensure their safety as there is a possibility the illegal miners who are on rampage might attack them since they want to take re­venge on anything Anglogold Ashanti.

The stress this issue brings to bear on employees is not helpful, given the environ­ment in which these employ­ees especially those working underground operate in.

One needs to have a sound mind to work underground otherwise serious injury or even fatality could occur so these incidents which brings stresses should be avoided.

The causes of these in­cidents must be carefully identified and effectively dealt with. Without delving deep into the matter, what is a notoriously evident is the political game being played by some politicians and more recently journalists who instead of sticking to their profession, are also indulging in unprofessional conduct by meddling in the Obuasi issue, nudging the illegal miners to trespass on the Obuasi Mine property.

The basic thing people should know and understand is that, mining properties are by law, restricted areas and you cannot enter with­out authorisation, especially working areas.

With my knowledge as a mining engineer and someone who once worked at Obua­si mine, l know the danger breaches of certain areas can create for the employees underground.

There is the need to recog­nise that no investor would allow their investments to be put at risk especially invest­ment in the mining sector which can run into hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of dollars.

It is therefore imperative for stakeholders to try and promote a certain level of understanding between the mine and the Obuasi commu­nity.

These deaths that occurred were needless, they should never have happened, they were avoidable.

Trespassing is a crime under our criminal code and there­fore opinion leaders within mining communities should make the effort to educate the youth about the need to stay off the property of min­ing companies if they have not been authorised.

This is the surest way to prevent the unfortunate incident which happened at Obuasi.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah