Koforidua, Sept. 22, GNA - A controversy about the size of the surface mining pit and its post-mining reclamation between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Akyem Project of the Newmont Ghana Gold Company Limited has led the company to suspend further employment of workers.

It had also decided to re-assign some of its expatriate staff to the Ahafo and Australia mines of the company in view of the uncertainty surrounding the timetable for reaching agreement between the two parties.

This was announced at the Third Quarter Media Briefing in Koforidua on Thursday by Mr Appiah Kwasi Obodum, Co-ordinator of Environmental and Social Responsibility unit of the company, located in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region.

Explaining the controversy, he said by law, the company could begin mining operations only after it had obtained an Environmental Permit from the EPA, based on its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) but said the EPA lately requested the company to reclaim the whole post-mining pit which, he noted, had grave technical and cost implications to discharge.

Mr Obodum said the company's investment in the Akyem Project was to install an 8.5-metric-tonne processing plant and produce 500,000 ounces per year over a projected 17-year duration, which was to cost it over 600 million dollars.

According to him, the project design considered technical, environmental and social aspects and had engineered solutions to maximize the benefits and minimize or mitigate the negative impacts in the operational area.

He said to earn and maintain the "social licence" of the communities within the concession, which he described as "equally important as government approval", the company was committed to develop trust, showing mutual respect, bring benefits and deliver results. Mr Obodum mentioned a number of completed and on-going community development projects undertaken by the company over the past two years involving education, potable water, sanitation, a police station and telecommunication.

He said if its permit was approved the company would undertake both short and long-term strategic programmes involving livelihood restoration and enhancement projects for affected households, mitigation of negative impacts due to population influx and increase in community resiliency and sustainability interventions. Sept. 22, 2006