ghana: Newmont Moves In to Open Ghana's Closed Forest Reserves

SOURCE: Drillbits & Tailings,
http://www.moles.org

Newmont Moves In to Open Ghana's Closed Forest Reserves

One of the world's largest gold mining companies, Denver-based Newmont,
will be granted licenses for two new operations in Ghana. This dangerous
precedent will allow Newmont to enter Ghana for the first time and pour
in an initial US$450 million to exploit Ghanaian land, law and people.

"Our villages have already been so rapaciously deforested by mining and
the health and the quality of remaining forests continue to decline and
now they are asking for the forest reserves, do they think Ghanaians
wash their faces from their chin upwards. Please write all that I have
said and tell the authorities that I said so," said Akosua Birago a
sixty-two year old farmer at Abekoase in Ghana's Western Region.

This recent development is an outgrowth of Ghana's competition for
foreign investment within the mining sector and a preview of next June's
proposed introduction of new legislation on new, 'friendlier' mining
laws.

Licenses have also been promised to Ghana's Ashanti, Australia's Red
Back and Canada's Nevsun Resources. Mining laws in Ghana are changing,
opening up protected forest reserves to these companies for exploration.

Ghana is Africa's second largest gold producer. Gold contributes
approximately forty percent of foreign exchange earnings and a little
more than six percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

In its fact finding mission in the Wassa area, Ghana's Human Rights and
Administrative Justice Committee recently reported ".overwhelming
evidence of human rights violations occasioned by the mining activities,
which were not sporadic but a well established pattern common to almost
all mining communities." These patterns of abuse are notoriously
prevalent throughout Newmont's operations around the world.

Mining operations in Ghana have displaced more than 50,000 indigenous
people without just compensation, employed less than 20,000 Ghanaians
(due to over-reliance on expatriate workers), burned villages, illegally
detained activists, raped women and continually denied the culture.

A large consortium of civil society activists, including groups centered
on human rights, labor, religion, women's rights, environment, and the
communities affected by the proposed mining, have vowed to fight these
decisions and continue to propose viable and sustainable alternatives.

The head of conservation programs at the Ghana Wildlife Society, Ishmael
Jesse-Dodoo, said, "We should not always look at the money; it is
transient. We should be looking at issues like sustainable tourism,
alternative livelihood programs, food security, etc.- options that can
sustain the livelihoods of present and future generations."

Environmentalists warn that mining operations within the pristine
eco-forests will speed mass deforestation and environmental degradation
in the country and pollute the fragile freshwater systems and topsoil
with cyanide and arsenic.

"Just look at this country's forest estate, We had about 8.3million
hectares now were left with only 1.2 hectares and we still want to give
out some more for mining when we know very well that after the mining
there will be no forests," said Friends of the Earth's Abraham Baffoe.

According to the Ministry of Lands and Forestry, less than two percent
of Ghana's native tree cover remains intact. These forests are home to
34 species of plants, 13 of mammal, eight of birds, 23 of butterflies
and two of reptiles, all internationally recognized as in danger of
extinction. They have over seven hundred types of tropical trees and
forest monkeys, fish and snakes- thus designating them as Special
Biological Protection Areas and Globally Significant Bio-diversity
Areas.

Ghana signed the Convention on Biological Diversity during the Earth
Summit in 1992, ratified in 1994. Representatives from Ghana delivered
speeches at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002
declaring its commitment to forest protection and bio-diversity.
Ghanaian president John Kufuor has just shown the world how shallow his
administration's words are.

At a time when international gold prices are at a six-year high due to
investor caution surrounding the impending war with Iraq, mining
minister Kwadwo Agyei-Darko told a mining conference in South Africa
that, "Our doors are open," and the companies, "did not wait in vain."
Minister Agyei-Darko indicated that he expects the new mining laws to go
through this year. These laws will be the keys to opening the protected
forest preserves.

This statement comes as no surprise after Newmont and other mining
companies issued veiled threats of lawsuits, or complete closedowns and
relocations, to Tanzania in order to blackmail the government to follow
through on the permits after exploration had started. The allowance of
exploration activities was illegally granted by the former corrupt
Rawlings regime.

Written by Charity Bowles, who worked with Friends of the Earth, Ghana,
on the National Coalition on Mining. She will be graduating from the
University of California, Berkeley, this May.

SOURCES: "Newmont's Ghana Mine Project Seen Starting in August,"
Reuters, February 14, 2003; "Ghana Lures Miners with New Laws Opening
Forests," Reuters, February 20, 2003; "Golden Greed: Trouble Looms Over
Ghana's Reserves," Mike Anane, League of Environmental Journalists,
February 12, 2003.