determination to ensure that, their activities boost the living
standard of the people living close to their areas of operation.
The Principal Communications Officer of Newmont, Mr. Oduro Kwarteng,
who gave the assurance at a quarterly press briefing on Thursday, at
Koforidua, said despite the suspension of the construction of the
Akyem project, the company would maintain a significant presence in
the area.He said the suspension of the construction had became
necessary due to the power crisis, need for governmental approval and
the issuing of environmental permit and mining license.Mr. Kwarteng
said the company was therefore redesigning its operational outlook for
the purposes of meeting the requirement of the permit requirement and
for cutting down cost to meet the financial aspiration of management.
He disclosed that, as a means to address the power crisis, three
mining companies in addition to Newmont, had installed a reserve
electricity power plant at Tema to support national efforts at solving
the power crisis facing the country.
Mr Kwarteng said, the project, as part of its social responsibility
towards the people, had designed a comprehensive and favourable
programme to pay compensations to those whose farms had been
disturbed by their activities and also help those interested to
set up new farms.
The chairman of the Crops Compensation Review Committee(CRRC), Mr. Yaw
Osafo hinted that, so far the committee had been able to fix prices of
the various crops in the area that are likely to be affected by the
operations of the company according to their market values and the
views of the committee would soon be presented to Newmont for action.
05 April 2007
