Some natives and residents of Talensi, a district in Ghana’s Upper East Region, have alleged that it takes job applicants showing the membership card of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and parting with money among other requirements before they are employed at Cardinal Namdini Mining Limited.
The claims were part of a list of concerns they raised against the Chinese gold-mining firm at a news conference held by a civil society organisation (CSO) named Talensi Mining Communities Initiative (TAMCI).
“Certain positions in the company are allegedly sold for various amounts of money ranging from Gh¢20,000.00 to Gh¢35,000.00.
“Complaints from the community indicate that they employ only NPP affiliates and those who have money to pay,” they said in a statement read by the organisation’s secretary, Gilbert Toah Laandolba.
They further stated that three key officials of the large-scale mining company—Maxwell Wooma, Emmanuel Kofi Adusei and another person mentioned only as Baba— had divided the traditional authorities of the various communities in the district.
The division, they claimed, was executed by creating “unnecessary competition and rivalry” among those authorities through what they described as “lies, deception and discrimination.”
“This has affected the unity and cooperation needed in our development drive,” the statement asserted.
“The company’s clandestine involvement in local politics must be resisted and stopped.”
Shoddy resettlement and little compensation
Another claim they made was that some community members who were relocated from their original areas to make way for the company to operate were not properly resettled.
They said those who opted to relocate themselves were offered an insufficient Gh¢40,000 (US$3,846) each to construct a 2-bedroom house for themselves and their families.
Both Wooma and Adusei, who reportedly function as the company’s community liaison officer and social responsibility manager respectively, frustrated a resettlement and compensation committee that was set up to negotiate and ensure fair and adequate compensation for affected people, according to the CSO.
The organisation added that the above-mentioned duo also opposed the engagement of a consultant, as provided in the Minerals and Mining (Resettlement and Compensations) Regulations 2012, LI 2175, to assess and determine compensation for the land affected by the company’s mining operations.
“The Talensi mining community has been short-changed with very poor housing structures for re-settlers, poor compensation packages for business owners, farmers and landowners.
“Emmanuel Kofi Adusei gave whatever he wished to asset owners. Many assets still remain uncompensated,” they stated.
Exclusion of community members from training, job opportunities
According to them, the company held a public hearing in the district in July, 2019, but subsequently failed to recruit and train job-seeking indigenous people as required by the Minerals and Mining Regulations 2020 (Local Content and Local Participation) L.I 2431.
They said the company rejected job applications from locals who undertook the required training on their own initiative and had dismissed about nine native workers within the past 14 days without a valid reason.
“Even certain traditional rulers are condoning and collaborating in this recruitment [misconduct] at Cardinal Namdini,” affirmed the statement.
TAMCI, according to the statement, organised paralegal training programmes for some community members and trained another set of people how to operate a variety of mining machines.
The training programmes were sponsored by Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa), Innovation Development Alternatives (IDEAs), Transformation of Marginal Areas (TAMA) Foundation and Global Institute of Mines and Engineers.
But, as mentioned in the statement, when the beneficiaries of those training programmes came together as a group and sought to have a discussion with the Chinese company in relation to the concerns of the affected communities, it did not show any interest in the proposed discussion.
“TAMCI prepared proposed Relationship Agreements in Social Responsibility, Employment and Development Fund, engaged and obtained the understanding and support of traditional rulers and relevant stakeholders of the company. We distributed the documents for collation of ideas and editing from the Paramount Chief and President of the Talensi Traditional Council, Member of Parliament, the DCE, and the Regional Minister.
“However, when we gave Cardinal Namdini Mining Ltd copies of the proposed agreements, we requested to have a meeting with the top management of the company. It [was] denied. The documents contain the structure of good mining governance but the company decides to continue with deceptive and false engagement with the district assembly and the traditional council,” it said.
Broken promises
Also on the list of the concerns expressed by the locals were claims that the company made some promises but backtracked on them.
They recalled how they surrendered their mining sites, businesses, lands, farms, freedoms and livelihoods to allow the company to settle and operate in Digaare and Biung but their hopes were extinguished later.
“The company has not fulfilled any of their promises they made to us at the initial stages of development,” they said.
Rather than keeping the promises, they said, the company had constructed “dangerous walls” with “security of various kinds” around itself while the indigenous inhabitants suffered unfamiliar diseases, armed robbery attacks, a worse form of poverty, mass unemployment, terrible road networks as well as poor electricity, water, education and healthcare services.
Rallying cry
The news conference also saw the organisers declare the company’s prospecting activities at Tola and Yameriga suspended with immediate effect.
They said the declaration showed the degree of seriousness they attached to the concerns and announced plans to encourage the communities hosting the company in the other districts of the region to do same.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if the large scale extraction of minerals from our land will not benefit us, do we still allow them? No. We are serious with our demands and they should desist from their usual ways of giving money to big men in political positions and security officials to suppress the local community from pressing home their grievances.
“We want all our demands to be fulfilled by end of July. We will advise ourselves by 15th July, 2025, if the Managing Director or CEO of the Cardinal Namdini (Shaandong Gold) fails to show up before us for initial planning,” they said.
Demands
The community members brought the news conference to a close by making a number of demands.
They called for the dissolution of the company’s so-called employment committee reportedly chaired by a traditional chief and the replacement of that committee with one that exuded inclusivity, trust and commitment to the roles and responsibilities spelt out in an employment agreement reportedly executed between the company and the communities.
Additionally, they requested an immediate roundtable between their own technical team and the company within the next 14 days to adopt a “Relationship Agreements in Social Responsibility, Employment and Development Fund” document proposed by the communities.
And they also demanded that the company sign the employment agreement, form “formidable mining governance structure for sustainable community-company relationship and development” and cooperate with “our technical team to form compensations committee to review all activities on compensations.”
They further accused a number of the company’s main officials of some misdeeds and demanded their dismissal from the company.
Some of the alleged wrongs are not mentioned in this story because they are considered ‘so grievous’ and the aggrieved community members have yet to support those claims with evidence.
But there is a habit that needs no evidence about the company. It rarely responds when approached by the press for answers to any pressing concerns expressed by aggrieved employees or community members.
That has been the company’s history since its arrival in the district, appearing as an entity that has no regard for public accountability and whose lone passion is the gold underground. The public only needs to check protest-related stories written about the gold-mining newcomer in the past to see proof.
Even when contacted on Wednesday, 9 July 2025, for their sides of the story on this latest issue before publication around the midnight of Saturday, 12 July 2025, the key officials cited by the native agitators declined, as usual and as expected, to comment.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
