TO THE EPA'S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR!

Dear Sir,

Re: Objection to EPA Mining Permit for Kibi Goldfields Limited/Solar Mining Limited.

We are writing to register our objection to an EPA Mining Permit being issued to Kibi Goldfields, and the company referred to in page 1 (Introduction), paragraph 1.0 of its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) document, as its so-called “Co-Operator,” Solar Mining Company Limited. As you are aware, Solar Mining Company Limited, on two occasions, in the recent past, defied orders from your officers’ who travelled all the way from Accra, to stop their illegal operations at Akim Abuakwa Juaso. It has also openly admitted in sections of the Ghanaian media (when its illegal activities were finally exposed to the nation by the NGO that polices the mining industry on behalf of poor rural communities nationwide, WACAM!) that it does not have a mining permit, but is seeking to regularize its operations. At a time of global warming, when we ought to be protecting our natural heritage, such a company should certainly not be allowed to mine gold anywhere in the territory of the Republic of Ghana – whose authority it continues to defy, even as we speak. With respect, the contumacy of illegal gold miners must never be rewarded by officialdom, under any circumstances, with the issuance of permits from the mining industry’s government regulators.


Sir, the Kibi Goldfields EIA document is a masterpiece of dissimulation, without compare. No diligent public official entrusted with the task of protecting Ghana’s natural environment, who reads the Conservation International document entitled: “Rapid Biological Assessment of the Atewa Range Forest Reserve, Eastern Ghana (RAP Bulletin of Biological Assessment 47),” for example, will, even without first visiting the area, in good conscience, allow the approval of a mining permit based on that deliberately nebulous EIA document presented by Kibi Goldfields, and its co-conspirator, Solar Mining Company Limited, to hoodwink officialdom into empowering their planned gang-rape of the natural environment. As the largest landowners in Akim Abuakwa Juaso, the P. E. Thompson Estate are major stakeholders (and have been since 1921: from the British colonial era!), whose voice of reason ought to be paid attention to, by officialdom, in this matter – as unlike most of the members of the farming communities in the area, we are not beholden to the wealthy rogues, who are destroying the ecology of an area designated a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), with such impunity.


One fails to understand how government ministers and top civil servants who attend international conferences overseas, which are held to help the world tackle global climate change, can look delegates from the wealthy nations that wish to commit funds to help nations like Ghana fight global warming, in the face, and appeal to them for funds: When a company like Kibi Goldfields, which has been insolvent for over a decade, and still owes a mountain of debt to its creditors; in collusion with its co-conspirator in this crime against humanity, the contumacious Solar Mining Company Limited, can use sleight-of-hand tactics, such as that EIA document full of half-truths and plain falsehoods, to trick officialdom into granting them an EPA permit to enable them upset the delicate ecological balance of an area that contains the headwaters of the three major river systems on which over 80 percent of urban Ghana depends for its drinking water supply: the Birim; the Ayensu; and the Densu.


What does the Forestry Service of the Forestry Commission, which is mentioned in passing, and in only about all of a mere two sentences, in total, in the whole of that nebulous EIA document, have to say about this shabby affair, one wonders – or are they also asleep and oblivious of their responsibilities at a time when global warming poses such a threat to the well-being of our country and its people? We do not see how any public official who actually goes to the Atewa Range upland evergreen rain-forest reserve and the off-reserve forestland in the foothills of that part of the Atewa Range in which Akim Abuakwa Jauso lies, and in which the 14 sq. miles of the P. E. Thompson Estate’s freehold private nature-resource reserve at Akim Abuakwa Juaso is located (about a little under 3.5 sq. miles of which incidentally lies inside the official government reserve!), will fail to see the many falsehoods in the Kibi Goldfields EIA document’s description of the state of the forestland there: and why the ecology of the area should not be allowed to be destroyed any further, by the rapacious duo of Kibi Goldfields/Solar Mining Company Limited – who are now proposing that they are allowed to get away with their unforgivable conspiracy to cause environmental degradation on a scale that is truly apocalyptic, by the EPA granting them a mining permit.


Sir, the EPA must not sanction this monstrosity and abomination, under any circumstances. We implore you to get your mining department’s officials to invite the Forestry Commission’s Forestry Service officials to accompany them to undertake a trip to the Akim Abuakwa Juaso section of the foothills of the Atewa Range – so that representatives of the P.E. Thompson Estate can show them how the reality on the ground does not in any way correspond with the false picture of denuded forestland that the Kibi Goldfields’ EIA document seeks to convey to the world: and blind officialdom with, so as to legitimize its dastardly scheme, which is driven solely by unfathomable greed of the most egregious kind. For the sake of present and future generations of Ghanaians, and the well-being of their nation, please do not let Kibi Goldfields/Solar Mining Company Limited succeed in their aim. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Kofi Thompson.

Cc:
Minister for Environment, Science, and Technology,
District Chief Executive- Fanteakwa District Aseembly,
Wassa Communities Against Mining (WACAM,
Centre for Public Interest Law (CPIL),
Minerals Commission,
Forestry Service, Forestry Commission.
Ofori Panin Fie, Kibi.



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