ANGLOGOLD SETS UP MODEL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE (PAGE 37, MIRROR)

From Kwame Asiedu Marfo, Iduapriem

THE Management of the AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem Mine) in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region has established a sustainable model for social and environmental performance.
The company, in collaboration with an Israeli company, Pollution to Water (P2W) has constructed a water treatment facility to conform to the best environmental practices.
The facility, which has been completed, treats tailings supernatant water by breaking down cyanide and also reduces turgidity in the water. The treated water would be stored in various dams on the company’s mining concession for future use.
The company has also been empowering people, especially the host communities to become active agents of sustainable development.
This is to enable them to understand that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues.
The Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem Mine), Mr David Kwesi Renner made these known at this year’s celebration of the World Environment Day at the mine. It was on the theme, “Your climate needs you, unite to combat climate change”.
As a means of bringing the future generation on board, a Children’s Environmental Club has been formed by the children of some members of staff of AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem Mine), to educate their peers and create awareness on environmental issues, while offering them the opportunity to learn more about how the Iduapriem Mine manages its environmental programmes.
Also, through the mining company’s alternative livelihood programme, dubbed “hand-in-hand” which has over 1,500 beneficiaries, the company is taking steps to address concerns about food security and agriculture.
The “hand-in-hand” programme has a component that concentrates on good agricultural practices, including planting of high-yielding oil palm seedlings, maize, vegetables among others.
The company has in addition, planted about 240,000 nitrogen fixing plants and local species on its waste dumps and tailings dams and supported various tree planting exercises in its catchment areas.
Strategically, he said the mining company was thinking of liaising with the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Authority as well as the chiefs and elders, on the establishment of green spaces for the benefit of the people within the mine’s catchment areas and the Tarkwa town.
This, he explained was to help improve green infrastructure such as parks, green spaces, water drainage systems and reduce the incidence of diseases.
He called on the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology and its agencies to ensure that the implementation of the conventions on climate change go as far as to the local level, so that many people will be educated on the repercussions of global warming and climate change.