Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has taken a proactive step to resolve the issue of alleged trespassing between Australian company, Cassius Mining Limited and Chinese firm, Shaanxi Mining Company.
Reports have been rife in Ghana and Australia that Cassius Mining Limited was planning to sue the government of Ghana after it found that Shaanxi Mining Company had invaded their concession and allegedly stolen $142million worth of gold.
In a joint statement issued after a ‘productive and cordial’ meeting between the Lands Minister and the Chief Executive Officer of Cassius Mining Limited, the two parties expressed readiness to resolve the matter.
Both the government and the company, as per the statement showed commitment to engaging further on the issue to bring finality to it.
“Following reports about the operations of Cassius Mining Limited ("Cassius") in Ghana and the ALLEGED trespass on their concession by Shaanxi Mining Limited, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, MP, on Friday, 2nd September 2022, met the Chief Executive Officer of Cassius together with the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, on the sidelines of the African Down Under in Perth, Australia.
“The purpose of the Meeting was to engage officials of Cassius on the matters contained in the widely circulated media reports on a without prejudice basis. The meeting was very cordial and productive.
“At the end of the Meeting, the two parties have agreed to further engage on all matters in controversy with the aim of finding an amicable solution,” parts of the statement.
Samuel Abu Jinapor is also set to hold talks with Shaanxi Mining Company as he bids to understand the issues and find a solution that is beneficial to all parties involved.
“The Minister is scheduled to engage officials of Shaanxi and other related parties in the coming days on this matter.”
Background
Between 2017-18, Cassius according to The Syndey Morning Herald detected that Shaanxi ventilation shafts had begun popping up closer and closer to its concession while it thrived in business and the former suffered.
The Australian company later confirmed that the Shaanxi Mining Company was mining from its concessions and was concealing it.
This was confirmed when the Ghana Minerals Commission ordered Shaanxi to allow Cassius, who are opposite each other in Talensi, to inspect their operation.
The Australian company consequently took the matter to court Shaanxi after it discovered that the Chinese mining company had stolen a lot of gold amounting to “tens of millions of dollars”.
However, while the case was been heard, officials of Shaanxi were caught meeting the judge, Justice Jacob Boon, in his home – a situation which compelled him to recuse himself from the case.
Following this, one of the authors of The Syndey Morning Herald story, Edward Adeti, was offered a bribe of motorbike and an arrangement to pay him money if he will sweep the story under the carpet.
An aide to former Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Bukari was said to be amongst persons who visited the author to bribe him.
Cassius has decided to escalate matters by taking the issue to the international court to seek redress over delays in settling the matter in the country.
Ahead of that as well, Shaanxi has been granted a much bigger concession to operate whereas Cassius struggles to renew it license to operate.
The Australian company wants to sue for both the stolen gold saga and the Gban incident, a village in the Northern part of the country where Shaanxi is accused of using explosions that create a toxic poison to kill small-scale miners who inhaled it in 2019.
Minister of Lands, Samuel Abu Jinapor and CEO of Cassius Mining Limited