The government will not bow to pressure to review the suspension on Maxam Ghana Limited, Lands and Natural Resources Ministry has indicated.
“Yes we have been receiving letters, AngloGold is stressed, Ghana Manganese is stressed, Persus is stressed, industry and chamber obviously are worried about they are not operating. Because it has impact on their operations, we have received report in that regards,” Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker has disclosed.
The explosives company fingered in the Appiatse devastation has had their operation permits suspended by government following the incident.
Minerals and Mining Regulations LI 2182, which talks about health, safety and technical regulations and the explosives regulations allow the inspector to close down the site. When there is reason to believe that further harm could be caused as a result of operating a site.
During an inspection tour at the company’s premises in Tarkwa, the Deputy Minister revealed that there have being numerous calls from mining companies, who have been affected since Maxam is a leading supplier to these companies.
However, the Tarkwa Member of Parliament noted that the lives of citizens are of prime concern to government.
“We want to be mindful of the lives of the citizenry and also have the operations on-going not to collapse the industry. So we are putting in place measures to protect Ghanaians and also their operations because we cannot isolate them, and say because they are losing we should look on carelessly or negligently allow them to work without taking into cognizance of the magnitude and the negative impact their operations may have on the citizens of this country,” he explains.
The Deputy Minister further indicated that they are yet to receive any data on how the suspension has derailed production in the mining industry.
“It is measured by PMMC (Precious Minerals Marketing Company) and that outlook we have not received report yet, possibly they have intermittent report that they send and we know it may have some kind of signal when the report is received.
“Having setup for years or decades and not also recounting any kind of accident I mean obviously they are keeping up to all the requirements that is what I see here. There are few house keeping things that I have observed and I have pointed out also to management and that possibly will be part of the release that will come out.”
