Ghana’s Ambassador to China, Mr Edward Boateng, has assured the public that, to ensure that Ghana benefits adequately from the expected bauxite mining, formal proceedings are being followed by the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation, GIADEC.
As part of a contentious $2 billion Sinohydro deal with China, the government of Ghana planned to mine bauxite in the Atewa Forest Reserve which has unfortunately received a lot of critics with environmental groups kicking against the deal due to the expected effects of bauxite mining especially in the Atewa Forest.
This has seen seven Civil Society Organisations and some private citizens to sue the government over the plans to mine in the Atewa Forest.
Mr. Edward Boateng refuted claims that Chinese companies where being favoured when it comes to the mining of Ghana’s bauxite. He made this known whiles interacting with the media on the occasion to mark 60 years of bilateral relations between Ghana and China.
He further went on to say that government has given out explanations as to how responsibly the bauxite mining would be done, which will see no damage or havoc caused to the Atewa Forest or to the environment as well.
He said, “It is important to state that Ghana’s bauxite was never given to the Chinese. GIADEC is going through its own processes, and companies from all over the world have tendered and are tendering. And some of the companies are indeed Chinese. But the whole idea on the bauxite was that we were going to develop the bauxite on our own terms and use the revenue from the bauxite to pay for the needed infrastructure project.”
“When the Synohydro deal was done, the company expressed no interest in the bauxite, but were willing to work with us as long as we could guarantee that they would be paid back from the proceeds from any bauxite we sold. And the bauxite in question could be mined by any company from anywhere in the world.”
Background
Last year, Ghana signed a memorandum with China to explore Ghana’s deposits of bauxite, the primary ore in aluminum. The deposits are found in two locations, Awaso with very high deposits in the moist semi-deciduous forest zone of western region of Ghana, and Atewa, with minimum deposits and located in the Upland Evergreen forests in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Under the memorandum Ghana will cede 5% of its bauxite resources to the Chinese. In turn, Beijing will finance $2 billion worth of infrastructure projects that include rails, roads and bridge networks. The agreement also included a 300 million yuan(US$42.7 million) grant and debt forgiveness worth US$35.7 million to help with Ghana’s infrastrucrure development, and also help to improve the skills of Ghanaian workers through vocational and technical training schemes.
Parliament passed the Ghana Bauxite Integrated Aluminum Industry Act which would provide a legal framework to exploit country’s bauxite deposits.
