AngloGold Ashanti has accused the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) of aiding the operations of illegal miners, known in the local parlance as galamsey operators, who are scrounging on the multi-national conglomerate’s concessions at Obuasi, reputed to hold one of the richest deposits of gold on the earth.

“The Electricity Company of Ghana cannot claim innocence of aiding these illegal miners, when they have extended electricity to pits illegally operated by these miscreants,” Mr. John Owusu, Corporate Affairs Manager of AngloGold Ashanti, complained during a tour of some galamsey sites in concessions owned by the multi-national company at Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.

At New Abompe, a notorious galamsey operating site at Obuasi, a team of AngloGold officials and security personnel, with this reporter in tow, encountered a situation in which electricity has been stepped down from high tension wiring, and power extended to illegal pits operated by some miscreants.

“This is a professional job. These galamsey operators could not have extended this power supply to their pits on their own. There is this transformer with about 15 to 20 concrete poles. The wires have been well laid. This can only be the work of professional men from the ECG. There cannot be any two ways about it,” said Mr. Owusu during the tour.

A builder at site at New Abompe, where new structures were springing up, and who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal from the usually dangerous galamsey operators, told the entourage that the illegal miners usually bring their equipment to the site on market days.

On such occasions, school children usually skip school to be used as head porters. The attraction to these kids, he explained, was the offer of GH¢5 per load. “These children carry out many sorties a day, earning what, to them, is a very profitable return from their ventures,” the builder explained.

“The danger of galamsey in Obuasi is that it takes many school children away from the classroom to be used as head porters. Some of these kids graduate to become galamsey operators themselves… Galamsey is not only a menace, in the sense that it pollutes our river bodies and degrades the environment. It takes many bright kids away from the classroom to join these miscreants,” the builder said.

At the District headquarters of the ECG at Obuasi, Mr. Owusu Ansah, District Manager, admitted that the electricity extension to the galamsey site was the work of the power distributing company. “We received applications from tenants residing at New Abompe requesting for power. We processed the documentations and extended power, as we normally do.”

He said the power distribution company was unaware that the applicants were encroaching on properties that did not belong to them, explaining that the law underlining the operations of the ECG required it to treat all manner of customers equally, without discrimination.

“As far as we are concerned, we have no evidence that those who applied for electricity at New Abompe were encroaching on AngloGold Ashanti concessions. If the legitimate owners feel so strongly about the provision of electricity to New Abombe, they should write to us stating that the concessions belong to them. We would go and dismantle the power supply immediately.

We cannot be seen to be condoning illegal acts. But we have to be sure that the concessions complained about truly belong to AngloGold Ashanti,” Mr. Owusu Ansah explained.

At Kokotesua, a suburb of Obuasi, eight kilometres from the headquarters of AngloGold Ashanti, galamsey operators have set up an operating headquarters of eight pits. A huge industrial Betisa Compressor has been installed to blow air into some of the pits.

At the sound of the approaching vehicles, the illegal operators took to their heels. Some are said to have descended into the make-shift pits they had constructed. It was obvious that at least one person was at a meal of banku and light soup when he bolted at the approach of the AngloGold delegation.