Destroying the whole Atewa forest for bauxite mining is untrue, it’s propaganda: Seth Adjei, Technical Director - GIADEC

Seth Adjei, Technical Director of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), has disregarded the propaganda as he professes that the entire Atewa Forest stands irreversible destruction should government proceed with plans to mine bauxite.

While attending a workshop on the environment at Ghana’s capital Accra, he said: “It cannot be true and should not stall national development.”

“We are talking about destroying the whole of the Atewa Forest. It is not true. It’s propaganda. The portion of the Atewa Forest that we are going to be ‘playing with is about 10% or less over 50 years. So you can imagine, 50 years, 10%, how much of it in a year are we going to touch?” Adjei added.

He said: “The targeted five million tonnes of bauxite to be mined takes into account the density of the bauxite, the depth and the cross-sectional area of the mine, explaining that the implication for mining in the Atewa Forest per an annual mining plan is going to be far less than one per cent of identified area.”

“With proposed reclamation plans being properly implemented at the end of the life of the mine, the fauna and flora should be restored.”

The GIADEC organised workshop had the mandate to promote and develop a globally competitive integrated aluminium industry in Ghana and detailed a guideline in regards to biodiversity study of the area of the Atewa Forest laid aside for mining with the view to properly documenting its life forms.

The study led by Prof. Benjamin Betey Campion, a senior lecturer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency has already produced a draft report that captures among other things ongoing illegal mining, logging and farming activities in the Atewa Forest.

Adjei said in response to agitations against the proposed state mining: “I’m glad Prof (Campion) showed the picture of the mining that is going on there. Ten years ago when I went there into the bush, I saw timber logging that had been done the previous night. They have been logging and one day we will get up and find that there is no forest at all. Meanwhile, GIADEC hasn’t even gotten there yet.”

“The issue needs to be looked at as a national priority, because GIADEC is in the final stages of negotiations with a viable partner to mine responsibly and to aid national development, unlike the destructive illegal mining and pillage whose perpetrators are hardly identifiable.”

“So if we are going to get a group that is going to come in and do the right things and be able to say, CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) come and let’s sit down and consider what you say the challenges are and then between us and you, we solve this problem, what is wrong with it?”