Newmont Ghana limited has assured of its 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 become 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. Source: GNA