Tarkwa Community Mining (A’koon) has stated it cannot be solely blamed for the devastation caused in A’koon community.
This comes on the back of a Joy News documentary which exposed the looming danger in Tarkwa as local miners ignore warnings to use an old shaft located within Goldfields Ghana’s active mining zone for community mining.
The documentary by Erastus Asare Donkor revealed that the use of old shafts for community mining exposes Tarkwa to danger while some local leaders also disputed the community ownership of the small-scale mining schemes.
There were deep cracks in individual homes as a result of blasting from the Akoon community mining scheme.
But to the company, there are several mining companies that operate in the Tarkwa enclave whose activities also impact the lives of residents, hence cannot take all the blame.
However, the company in a statement has assured steps have been taken to address the looming danger.
“Just recently about two weeks ago, our office was served with a letter from the Municipal Mining Oversight Committee to a meeting on the alleged building cracks in A’koon Community from which the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were tasked to do their independent assessments on the cracks and report accordingly to the committee as to whether those cracks were as a result of our activities or otherwise,” the statement noted.
On claims of residents being sidelined in its operations, TCM noted the community is well represented in the Management Board with three of their own members out of the ten members.
Aside from this, TCM in a statement noted they are diligent with their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to A’koon community.
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‘Their share of the ore production at our Company is given to the Community every three
weeks, construction of an ultra-modern Community Center for the A’koon Community as
part of our CSR of which work is assiduously ongoing worth over Two hundred thousand
cedis (Gh ¢200,000).
“Two sets of Jerseys and footballs on a request from their Basic school
already purchased for delivery. It is a palpable lie if the documentary says A’koon Community does not benefit from Tarkwa Community Mining,” portions of the statement read.
Read the full statement below: