Multi-Million Dollar Project Abandoned

By Felix Dela Klutse
A-$46 million multi-purpose project to be undertaken by Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited has been stalled, as some inhabitants of Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region would not allow management of the company to operate.

The project, which is expected to employ about 200,000 people, is lying idle because of serious threats on the lives of the company’s shareholders. Currently some of the firm’s assets are deteriorating and about 300 employees have been sent home.

Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited is a limited liability company incorporated to take over the operations of the defunct Dunkwa Goldfields Limited, after a project agreement was signed between the Ghana Government and Continental Construction and Mining Company Limited in 1995.

The project agreement mandated the company to undertake activities such as precious, non-precious and industrial minerals, water and electrical power generation, agriculture, timber, and manufacturing of capital goods including processing plants.

“Our short-term plan is to combine precious and industrial minerals dredging and non-dredging operations to turn the project into a multi-layered one and also provide employment to the masses. Unfortunately, this could not be implemented due to harsh resistance from the local communities,” Kris Kapoor, Resident

Director of the company told BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview in Accra last Friday.
He said his company, since taking over the operations of the defunct Dunkwa Goldfields, conducted its activities in accordance with the terms of the project agreement, but had to stop its gold mining business along the way and venture into other business areas such as agro processing due to the fallen prices of gold in the 1990s.

“The company has not folded up as its being speculated. We stopped mining gold because dredging operations have proved to be non-viable due to the poor market price of gold and high cost of operations in the 90s,” Mr Kapoor told this paper further.

He however said efforts to resume gold mining activities in the area to provide employment has over the years proved futile due to constant demonstration and ruthless resistance from the local communities.

Recently, properties of the company worth millions of dollars have been destroyed by some irate youth of Dunkwa-On-Offin.
Reports say the thugs, with offensive weapons, stormed the premises of the company, located at the Upper Denkyira East a few weeks ago to vandalize some of its assets.

“The demonstrators entered our premises that fateful day and destroyed our bungalows, stores, workshops and finally locked-up the premises with their own padlocks to prevent us from entering. They also threatened to kill me and my Project Engineer,” Mr. Kapoor told BUSINESS GUIDE.

He added: “This is not the first time this situation is occurring. It started two years ago and as I speak now, nine persons are occupying our bungalows illegally. The residents of the area have also turned our main office building into a nurses’ quarters and will not allow us to enter into our own premises.”

In 2004, the company in collaboration with the Ministry of Agric, developed a high caliber model facilities in agro/food processing and capital goods manufacturing at its project site at Dunkwa and on the night before commissioning the facilities, some inhabitants of the area carried human faeces and smeared it on all the entrances to the model facilities, Mr Kapoor added.

He recalled that the Chairman of the of Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited was in Ghana in August 2006 to meet and inform President John Agyekum Kufuor about the situation but could not get audience as there was no reply to his letter.

The aforementioned development, Mr Kapoor stressed, was as a result of a letter written by the former Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Professor Dominic Fobih, on November 7, 2005, that his ministry had terminated the project agreement signed between the Ghana Government and Continental Construction and Mining Company Limited in 1995.

Mr. Kapoor said the steps taken by the ministry was illegal and was without due process.
“The project agreement contains an arbitration clause which obliges the parties to refer any dispute arising from the agreement to international arbitration under the rules and regulations of the International Chamber of Commerce,” he said.

The project agreement also has no expiry date and enjoys all privileges and benefits under the old and new Minerals and Mining Laws but does not have any obligations under these laws, Mr Kapoor noted, stressing that the ministry could not take a unilateral decision to terminate the agreement without recourse to arbitration.
He therefore appealed to government to help the company to revive its operations.

E-mail: felixklutse@yahoo.com



By Felix Dela Klutse
A-$46 million multi-purpose project to be undertaken by Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited has been stalled, as some inhabitants of Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region would not allow management of the company to operate.

The project, which is expected to employ about 200,000 people, is lying idle because of serious threats on the lives of the company’s shareholders. Currently some of the firm’s assets are deteriorating and about 300 employees have been sent home.

Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited is a limited liability company incorporated to take over the operations of the defunct Dunkwa Goldfields Limited, after a project agreement was signed between the Ghana Government and Continental Construction and Mining Company Limited in 1995.

The project agreement mandated the company to undertake activities such as precious, non-precious and industrial minerals, water and electrical power generation, agriculture, timber, and manufacturing of capital goods including processing plants.

“Our short-term plan is to combine precious and industrial minerals dredging and non-dredging operations to turn the project into a multi-layered one and also provide employment to the masses. Unfortunately, this could not be implemented due to harsh resistance from the local communities,” Kris Kapoor, Resident

Director of the company told BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview in Accra last Friday.
He said his company, since taking over the operations of the defunct Dunkwa Goldfields, conducted its activities in accordance with the terms of the project agreement, but had to stop its gold mining business along the way and venture into other business areas such as agro processing due to the fallen prices of gold in the 1990s.

“The company has not folded up as its being speculated. We stopped mining gold because dredging operations have proved to be non-viable due to the poor market price of gold and high cost of operations in the 90s,” Mr Kapoor told this paper further.

He however said efforts to resume gold mining activities in the area to provide employment has over the years proved futile due to constant demonstration and ruthless resistance from the local communities.

Recently, properties of the company worth millions of dollars have been destroyed by some irate youth of Dunkwa-On-Offin.
Reports say the thugs, with offensive weapons, stormed the premises of the company, located at the Upper Denkyira East a few weeks ago to vandalize some of its assets.

“The demonstrators entered our premises that fateful day and destroyed our bungalows, stores, workshops and finally locked-up the premises with their own padlocks to prevent us from entering. They also threatened to kill me and my Project Engineer,” Mr. Kapoor told BUSINESS GUIDE.

He added: “This is not the first time this situation is occurring. It started two years ago and as I speak now, nine persons are occupying our bungalows illegally. The residents of the area have also turned our main office building into a nurses’ quarters and will not allow us to enter into our own premises.”

In 2004, the company in collaboration with the Ministry of Agric, developed a high caliber model facilities in agro/food processing and capital goods manufacturing at its project site at Dunkwa and on the night before commissioning the facilities, some inhabitants of the area carried human faeces and smeared it on all the entrances to the model facilities, Mr Kapoor added.

He recalled that the Chairman of the of Dunkwa Continental Goldfields Limited was in Ghana in August 2006 to meet and inform President John Agyekum Kufuor about the situation but could not get audience as there was no reply to his letter.

The aforementioned development, Mr Kapoor stressed, was as a result of a letter written by the former Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, Professor Dominic Fobih, on November 7, 2005, that his ministry had terminated the project agreement signed between the Ghana Government and Continental Construction and Mining Company Limited in 1995.

Mr. Kapoor said the steps taken by the ministry was illegal and was without due process.
“The project agreement contains an arbitration clause which obliges the parties to refer any dispute arising from the agreement to international arbitration under the rules and regulations of the International Chamber of Commerce,” he said.

The project agreement also has no expiry date and enjoys all privileges and benefits under the old and new Minerals and Mining Laws but does not have any obligations under these laws, Mr Kapoor noted, stressing that the ministry could not take a unilateral decision to terminate the agreement without recourse to arbitration.
He therefore appealed to government to help the company to revive its operations.

E-mail: felixklutse@yahoo.com