By Septimus Senessie in Kono.
Member if Parliament for Constituency 24 in Kono District says the 0.1% allocation of funds to mining communities for development is too small considering the amount of destruction carried out by mining companies. Ruskin Momoh Kanneh Mbayo was speaking at a one-day community participatory and consultation meeting with residents of Nimikoro and Nimiyama chiefdoms over the granting of mining license to the Nimini Gold Mining Company held by the Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources. While commending the government for the enactment of the Mines and Mineral Act of 2009 calling it “a road map to an improved mining practice in the country”, the MP said “the use of chemicals like cyanide and mercury for the separation of gold from the ore is very dangerous to human life and the lives of water spices”, adding that mercury could take hundreds of years to dissolve properly when disposed of. He therefore admonished the company to “treat the environment with seriousness and in line with the environmental laws of the country and international best practices”. During discussions, the people of the gold mining communities also expressed fears over the “hazards and health implications” attached to gold mining especially when such a mining is mechanized with the use of chemicals. The Executive Director of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Abu Brima asked the ministry to let the mining communities know about the dangers and benefits behind such mining practices in their communities. He described cyanide as a “very dangerous chemical used in gold mining, adding that it would “kill people very fast if carelessly disposed of and gets into the source of drinking water.” Brima urged the ministry to institute proper management system for the disposal of chemicals to protect lives in the communities. The Paramount Chief of Nimikoro Chiefdom, PC Aiah Denton Bona Foamansa III welcomed the initiative of an open forum to consult with the people and to have their say on the mining agreement. He encouraged the ministry to capture in the agreement the opening of a skills-training school for the youth as a means of capacitating them. Paramount Chief of Nimiyama Chiefdom, George Bockarie Torto expressed dissatisfaction over the way government issues licenses to prospecting mining companies without their notice, adding that they were not consulted or even informed by the government about the issuance of those prospecting licenses. “We will just see mining companies operating in our chiefdoms without our notice and when we ask them they reply to us that it was the government that gave them the mandate to operate”, PC Torto said. He went on that those mining companies would end up destroying the land and later abandon it. Director of Mines Jonathan Sharka said the concerns of the people would be looked into. He said the purpose of the forum was to inform the communities that the Nimini Gold Mining Company had completed exploration since they started in 2004 and that they were ready to engage in proper mining activities because they had discovered gold in the two chiefdoms. He said the license for mechanized gold mining would last for 25 years. The first meeting took place at Komaror Village, Nimikoro chiefdom while the second meeting was held at the Jaiama Sewafeh town Barray, Nimiyama Chiefdom.
