A Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in charge of Mines has asserted that Electrcohem Ghana has all the required licences backed by law to mine salt in the Ada Songor concession of the Greater Accra Region.
According to Mr Duker, the company has the requisite mandate from both the Minerals Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, giving legitimacy to its operations.
He made these assertions in a documentary titled ‘Salt City’, which was aired on Wednesday, 20 April 2022 to shed light on the largely underutilised salt concession and the enormous potential it holds when properly developed from its current crude and artisanal status.
Per the Minerals and Mining Act, Act 703, the Minerals Commission, after going through all the laid-down processes, recommends the signing of the required documents and licences to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources.
“These have been done; the Minister has duly signed the licences for Electrochem Ghana to develop and mine from the concession. You can verify from the database of the Minerals Commission,” Mr Duker emphasised.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Mr Martin Kwaku Ayisi, who also commented on the subject, said due process was followed in the procedures that led to the granting of a mining licence to Electrochem Ghana to operate the Ada Songor concession.
He said the application went to Parliament for ratification and was subsequently gazetted.
He also noted that the landowners were accordingly given all the necessary documents that the law required the Commission to provide.
“As a Commission, we would not have sent anything to Parliament without going through the due process,” Mr. Ayisi emphasised.
The Chairman of the McDan Group of Companies, Dr Daniel McKorley, said: “Electrochem Ghana’s work will tell the story by itself.”
“Aside from the ongoing effort to increase production and create more jobs, one thing we haven’t lost sight of is the integration of the local miners into our operations through the communal mining concept,” he said in the TV3 documentary.
“We are making the people of Ada a part of the project, re-engineering their improvised ‘galamsey’ pans into standard community pans of modern architecture for more people to mine alongside our commercial mining. The good thing is that we will continue to scientifically look at the way they produce the salt to ensure it meets the standards required on the international market, give them free access to brine (seawater) through our reservoirs and provide them with a ready market after mining,” he added.
