Senior Manager for Development and Sustainability at Anglogold Ashanti, Emmanuel Baidoo, has intimated that his outfit was not made aware of a petition to release mining concessions to the youth of Obuasi.

Speaking about the protest by some youth in Obuasi demanding some mining concession to work on, Emmanuel Baidoo averred that AngloGold only became aware of the demands after the protest.

“First of all, I am not aware of any petition to release a mining concession to them. What we are aware of is that a group of people who call themselves Obuasi Youth Community Miners hit the streets of Obuasi basically asking or petitioning government and Nananom to prevail upon AngloGold Ashanti to release our abandoned mining site to their members for them to undertake community mining.”
Emmanuel Baidoo

The Senior Manager indicated that it is a very simple request, however, AngloGold Ashanti doesn’t have such abandoned areas that the group is talking about. “We are aware that since 2014, we have surrendered over 70 percent of our original mining sites consistent with the law to the Minerals Commission.”

According to Mr. Baidoo, his outfit only retained the areas which are very critical to its current and future mining operations. He disclosed that these are the areas that the group is asking and some of them will lead to its active mining areas.

“We are very much aware that about a month ago, they planned to embark on a similar demonstration but the Adansihene intervened and called us together with them, we discussed the issue and explained our part clearly. To the best of our knowledge, we know they have understood the position of the mines, so we were a bit surprised that they hit the streets pressing for the same demand.”
Emmanuel Baidoo

Obuasi protest 2 — Obuasi Youth protesting

AngloGold committed to development

Mr. Baidoo noted that AngloGold Ashanti has demonstrated its commitment to contribute to the development of Obuasi. He stated that when it comes to unemployment, they are aware that it’s a huge concern to the country and Obuasi is no exception.

“We have demonstrated our commitment through our local employment procedure to create opportunities for people in and around Obuasi. We are aware that we can’t probably employ everyone in Obuasi. So, we are implementing alternative intervention which will create avenue for the people to create jobs for themselves.”
Emmanuel Baidoo

According to Mr. Baidoo, creating employment cannot be achieved overnight but AngloGold constantly ensures it provides interventions to ensure that, at least, it contributes to job creation in Obuasi.

“We have invested hugely in SME development. We, for instance, last year collaborated with ‘Invest in Africa’ and out of that collaboration, we developed capacity of over hundred SMEs in Obuasi. Some of them through that collaboration are currently even doing business out of Obuasi.”
Emmanuel Baidoo

His comments came after protestors in Obuasi called for the release of the abandoned mining concessions in Obuasi to enable them use to get some source of livelihood. Their protest followed complains that government was not attending to them after they had attended the community mining training which was meant to help them engage in community mining.