Residents of Apatam and Adukrom, two communities within a concession in Nzema East given out to Yellow Gold, a large scale mining firm, to undertake prospecting activities say the concession will not have any adverse impact on the Greater Amanzuri Management area.

According to them, the concession terminates far off the conservation and they do not believe the activities of the company will have any adverse effect on the environment.

In a conversation with one elder of Apatam, he said “their concession does not get to the area the NGOs came to take for a conservation, and I will find it difficult to say that the operations of the company will affect it”.

He further revealed that a section of the concession that that illegal miners were operating, but have been chased away by operatives of the gold company, has a stream that dries up during dry seasons.

“That small stream at the place the galamsayers were has a small stream that dries up during the dry season. I am yet to check whether or not their operations will adversely affect its downstream. I will check that,” he said.

At Adukrom, a community before Apatam when going there from the Elubo highway, the Chief of the community, Nana Atta Kabenla IV, said they do not have a conservation area in the community, adding that their lands have been given out for farming activities.

“We don’t have any land for conservation because all our lands have been given out for rubber plantation, and the few left for cassava and other foodstuff. So we don’t have any area here like that. Since I came on the throne, I haven’t had the problem of visiting any area that is so conserved for natural resources or for environmental basis,” he said.

He revealed that the streams in the area end up in the Ankobra, but the ones at the proposed prospecting sites of Yellow Gold do not terminate in the river.

“The streams in the area end up in bigger streams far away from us.  From here to Ankobra, You can imagine how long it is, and none of the streams where Yellow Gold wants to operate end up in the Ankobra,” he said.

When asked about where these streams end up, Nana Atta Kabenla IV said “personally, I haven’t followed them individually to where they end, but seriously speaking it is safe if they actually operate as we’ve discussed”.

Though the Yellow Gold company has explained that its activities do not include alluvial mining - which has been identified as one main challenge to the environment -  the NGOs still have issues with the license. They argue that based on happenings in recent past, they cannot trust that the company will not engage in illegal activities that will hurt the environment.

The Minerals Commission is however allaying fears of Ghanaians. They have promised to closely monitor the activities of Yellow Gold together with the NGOs and members of the community to ensure that any wrong doing is reported for the license to be withdrawn.

Amanzuri Management Area and CREMA

The Amanzuri Management Area is a reserved area established by the Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in partnership with a group of NGOs for the purposes of restoring degraded lands to their original form. They also have Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) core zones where there are intact mangroves and swamps.

The Minerals Commission says it has no idea of the existing of such initiatives – reason there is this misunderstanding around the concession. But once they have come to know, they will, together with all interested parties, ensure that the activities of Yellow Gold do not adversely affect the areas.