By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Anateem (U/E), April 03, GNA – Mineral resources, particularly gold deposits have been discovered in at least seven Municipal and Districts in the Upper East Region, Mr Donatus Atanga Akamugri, the Regional Minister has revealed.
The Regional Minister disclosed this to the media during a tour of the proposed site for the Upper East Regional Airport at Anateem, a suburb of the Sumbrungu community in the Bolgatanga Municipality.
The Regional Minister visited the site together with some technical officers of the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) to assess the area for first-hand information as part of preparation towards the construction of the airport project.
“This region, all of a sudden, we have discovered minerals around,” Mr Akamugri said, adding, “out of the 15 Municipal and Districts Assemblies, we have about seven of them that have these deposits”.
The Regional Minister stressed that the construction of the airport in the region would ensure that the region benefited from the exploration of these mineral resources and open up the region for businesses.
“If we have these mineral deposits, it means, there is business to do and when they are doing the mining, they will need faster means to be able transport their gold to the national level without being disturbed by armed robbers,” he said.
The Regional Minister called on the GACL to fast-track the construction of the airport in the region and emphasised that it was well positioned to serve the rest of the country and the Sahelian region to generate foreign exchange, create employment and boost tourism.
Currently, there are two large scaling mining activities being undertaken in the Talensi District by the Cardinal Namdini Mining Limited, a subsidiary of Shandong Gold, a Chinese mining firm and the Earl International Gold, another Chinese mining firm.
Apart from that the government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in 2023, commissioned a community mining scheme project in the Bongo-Soe community in the Bongo District.
Additionally, the Ghana News Agency has gathered that apart from the Talensi and Bongo Districts, there are gold deposits in the Bolgatanga Municipality, Bolgatanga East, Nabdam, Bawku West, Kassena-Nankana West and Builsa North.
Again, the GNA has information that in these districts, illegal mining activities are currently ongoing destroying people’s farmlands and forest reserves while some efforts are being taken by some mining companies to go through the process to undertake exploration activities in these areas.
GNA