Local Mining company at the center of the Nyinahin Bauxite brouhaha has said that government is only telling lies and contradicting itself to say the company’s three mining leases were invalid.
Lands and natural resources minister , Peter Amewu in a letter to Exton Cubic explained that the company’s failure to provide key documents covering its acceptance of the lease, notice of pendency, environmental impact assessment and other statutory requirements rendered the leases invalid.
But spokesperson for Exton Cubic, Sammy Gyamfi described government’s decision to revoke the company’s mining leases as sad and unfortunate.
”Though we are disappointed in government, we are not perturbed by their decision because we saw it coming, considering the way and manner some government officials and institutions initially handled the matter”, he said.
According to him, all the allegations made by the Lands and mineral resources minister are untrue, because Exton cubic has fulfilled every legal requirement there is.
”We are very calm and going through the necessary documents with our legal team and at the appropriate time, we will call a press conference to also address the media on our part of the story”, he said on an Accra based radio station.
Sammy Gyamfi however explained that all the allegations made against Exton Cubic are baseless, illegal, false, contradictory and must be treated with contempt.
He however downplayed reports that the company acquired mining leases after the National Democratic Congress lost the 2016 elections in December.
”We acquired our due diligence permit in 2013 from the minerals commission in 2013 which was not an election year, we also got our prospecting license from the ministry of lands and natural resources upon the recommendations of the minerals commission on 24th December 2015 which was also not an election year and went through the processes until our mining lease was made ready on October 2016 before the elections”, he explained.
Sammy Gyamfi however bemoaned the politicisation of issues in Ghana which he described as the bane of development, stressing that, Exton Cubic is a business entity and not a political organisation.
”If they claim the NDC granted us the leases after losing the 2016 elections, what about the forest entry permit and mining lease we acquired in 2017, would they say a political party granted it to us”, he queried.
Source: otecfmghana.com
