AngloGold Ashanti{AGA} Obuasi Mines has constructed a US$33.7 million water treatment plant to ensure that water that is disposed from the mines to the community is safe and environmentally friendly.
The plant has an outlet that disposes off the treated water into streams and other water bodies used by the people.
Due to its high quality, which by international standards is considered to be safer than treated water from the Ghana Water Company Limited, the AGA is going through approval processes to use the water internally and also to channel it into homes of residents in its operational areas.
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The plant, however, comes with a monthly maintenance cost totaling GH¢570,641.
Tour
The Managing Director of AGA, Mr Eric Asubonteng, took the chiefs of the Adansi Traditional Area on a tour of the facility last Friday, to acquaint themselves with the happenings at the mines.
The chiefs, led by the Omanhene, Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II, toured the water treatment plant, the newly constructed ‘deep decline” (underground tunnel), for the extraction of gold and its old Sansu site which has been reclaimed and turned into a plantation.
Mr Asubonteng assured the chiefs that production was likely to start in 2019 to make the Obuasi town vibrant again.
He dispelled rumours that the company was employing people to the neglect of indigenes, saying that the contract to that effect had not been awarded and advertised.
University
Mr Asubonteng outlined future plans of the mines, including a proposal to convert its old site, known as the ‘North Mines,’ into a university college.
He said the establishment of the university to train manpower for the economy would open up the town for business.
Mr Asubonteng said the AGA had ceded 60 per cent of its concession (274 Km2) to government because the company was not in need of it.
Omanhene
Speaking on behalf of the chiefs, Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II stressed on the need for the mines to generate employment for the people and for the government to ensure the establishment of the university at the old mines.
He expressed satisfaction with the progress of work done for the mines to bounce back, including the construction of ‘Refuge Chamber’ where an entrapped worker could seek refuge for weeks before rescue.
The chamber is one of the new introductions into the mines.
The Omanhene called for greater collaboration between the mines and the people to avoid clashes and confrontations.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
