JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed gold miner Perseus Mining on Friday said its gold production had been unaffected by clashes between illegal miners and Ghanaian national security forces in the town of Ayanfuri near the company’s Edikan mine.
Perseus explained that members of the Ghanaian military were last week deployed to arrest illegal miners operating in the area. The illegal miners were attempting to extract gold from a decommissioned heap leach pad from a previous mining operation situated on the fringes of Perseus's mining lease.
The security forces arrested 32 illegal miners, leading to clashes, which resulted in a bus and a drill rig belonging to contractors being burnt.
None of Perseus’s property were damaged and none of its employees injured in the incident.
“While mineworkers were prevented from leaving Ayanfuri to start the night shift at Edikan on Sunday evening when a barricade was erected by the [illegal miners] . . . day shift employees worked a double shift and operations continued unimpeded. This barricade has since been cleared,” the company said in a statement.
Perseus was cooperating with the authorities to ensure peace and safety was maintained around Edikan to allow its management team and workers to continue to focus on building on the material operating improvements that had been achieved at the mine.
This will, ultimately, benefit a range of stakeholders, including the host community and national government, the company stated.