Stephen Osei Bempah, General Manager of the Tarkwa Mine
Gold Fields Ghana Limited, Tarkwa and Damang Mines, are rehabilitating their respective Tailing Storage Facilities as part of measures to create enduring value beyond mining.
The rehabilitation of these facilities, which contain all waste produced from the mining process, is aimed at restoring the fertility of the decommissioned land for farming purposes.
The exercise involves the planting of nitrogen-fixing trees on the land to produce natural fertiliser for the cultivation of citrus, mango, coconut, cocoa, rubber and other cash crops.
Workers of Gold Fields are also harvesting tree seedlings from the forest, nursing and transplanting them on the decommissioned land.
The General Manager of the Tarkwa Mine, Stephen Osei Bempah, and Charles Kofi Nti, of the Damang Mine, disclosed these during a media engagement at Tarkwa on Wednesday following a tour to the facilities.
Rehabilitation process
Mr Osei Bempah noted that although the lifespan of Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine ends on 2035, it still has a reserve of 5.8 square miles containing 4 million ounces of gold ready for taking.
He further disclosed that annual gold production at the Mine which used to be 4. 5 million ounces, has now increased to 14 million.
Experts say there will be even no need for application of artificial fertiliser on the land by local farmers who will be farming on the rehabilitated land.
The Daily Statesman gathered, for instance, that 500, out of the 1, 412 hectares of destroyed land at Damang Mine have been rehabilitated with 4, 000 trees planted on it.
Fifty-three hectares have also been cultivated with rubber with plans by management to venture into oil palm and other cash crop cultivation.
Meanwhile, both managers said management was looking into the future with no stone being left unturned to achieve this goal.
They also maintained that Gold Fields Ghana Limited which is one of the leading mining companies in Africa, contributes to the national kitty by paying huge taxes to the government.
They also made mention of Corporate Social Responsibility to communities in catchment areas with an emphasis on education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation as well as infrastructural development.
Journalists were later conducted round other ongoing projects such as the ultra-modern such as the TnA stadium which is 73 percent complete and the Huni Valley Senior High School Girls Dormitory.
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