Apiate Explosion: Ministry of Lands awaits Health and Safety Committee’s report

Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, says the Health and Safety Committee of Enquiry, investigating the Apiate explosion, will soon submit its report.

He said the Government would implement the necessary recommendations to make the nation’s mining industry safer and better.

Mr Jinapor was answering a question in Parliament on Thursday by Mr. Edward Abambire Bawa, the Member of Parliament for Bongo, who wanted to know what the findings and recommendations of the Apiate disaster committee was and if the reports could be published.

It would be recalled that on January 20, a truck transporting some explosive materials (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) on behalf of Maxam Ghana Limited Explosive Plant, located at Iduapriem, Tarkwa in the Western Region, to Chirano Gold Mines, exploded at Apiate in the Prestea Huni Valley Municipality, causing extensive damage to life and property.

Mr Jinapor said the Health and Safety Committee was established under the chairmanship of Professor Richard Kwasi Amankwah, the Vice-Chancellor of the Paa Grant University of Mines and Technology.

The members are from the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana Bar Association and the mining industry to review the entire health and safety regime of the industry and make recommendations to the Government for legislative, policy and other reforms.

He assured the House that the Ministry would publish the report of the Committee, which had a broader mandate and whose recommendations were geared towards the reformation of the mining sector.

Mr. Jinapor noted that following the incidence, the Minerals Commission, the Regulator, conducted its investigations in accordance with the Minerals and Mining Regulation 2012 (LI 2177) and submitted its report to him.

Given the complexity of the matter, he constituted a three-member committee chaired by Mr Benjamin Aryee, a former Chief Executive of the Minerals Commission to carry independent investigations to corroborate the findings or otherwise of the Minerals Commission.

He said on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, he received the report of the three-member committee and the two reports established certain regulatory breaches on the part of Maxam in the manufacture, storage, and transportation of explosives.

He said key among those were failure to ensure that the transportation of explosives was managed by a certified manager, contrary to Regulation 62(a) of the Minerals and Explosives Regulation 2012 (LI 2177) and failure to ensure that activities that involve explosives were carried out only by competent and certified persons, contrary to Regulation 62(b) of LI 2177.

Others are failure to ensure that a code of safe working practice developed for the transportation of explosives are followed, contrary to regulation 11(1) of LI 2177 and failure to ensure that the transportation of explosives was done under the supervision of a person with required certificate of competency, contrary to Regulation 15 (1a).

The Minister said the Committee recommended, among others, that MAXAM be sanctioned as well as how to make the transportation of explosives safer.

These include the installation of fire suppression systems in explosive vehicles, the use of two escort vehicles, one leading and the other behind the explosives vehicle, the use of two police officers and use of sirens to alert road users.

It also recommended the entire health and safety regime of the mining industry.

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