Over the course of the past 17 years, Shaanxi Mining (Ghana) Limited has been repeatedly heard calling some individuals illegal miners in a high-pitched scream and accusing them of trespassing on its concession in Talensi, a district in Ghana’s Upper East Region.
Whenever the Chinese company, now known as Earl International Group (Ghana) Gold Limited, makes such accusations, it tries to scream them into the public ear through a group of media outlets that has proven to be dedicated to its interests.
Those media houses are allergic to reporting any human rights-related complaints lodged against the company. But they are very addicted to doing publicity for the firm and they are very quick to do damage control on its behalf.
Reports about the company’s trespass claims and complaints at times go with some indigenous faces being paraded in handcuffs as culprits and they make the Chinese firm look like a victim deserving a shower of public sympathy.
Perhaps, only a few do know that the same company has been accused by at least five entities of trespassing on their concessions in the same district.
Four of these entities— Nanlaamtaba Enterprise, Yenyeya Mining Group, Cassius Mining Company and Mpeligiba Enterprise— have taken the Chinese company to court. The cases are yet to be resolved at the various law courts.
The fifth, Unique Mining Group, lodged a trespass complaint with the Minerals Commission against Shaanxi in 2011.
A report authored in 2012 by a committee instituted by the commission to investigate the complaint showed that Shaanxi “had extended its mining operations beyond the authorised areas.”
The small-scale concession owned by Unique Mining Group fell within the areas the committee said Shaanxi had extended its mining operations to.
Roughly five years ago, the Chinese company acquired a 16.02km² piece of land in the district for large-scale mining purposes. After acquiring that land and securing a mining licence some stakeholders have faulted, the company also took over several already-existing small-scale mining concessions from their owners, stirring up controversies.
It further gave Unique Mining Group $150,000 in 2021 in “compensation” for the trespass the Minerals Commission’s committee established in its 2012 report.
A key member of the group says the “compensation” is inadequate compared to the value of gold believed to have been taken away in tons during the trespass.
He says a cheque was issued without a prior assessment of the trespass in terms of magnitude by a qualified professional.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org
