Mineworkers of the Prestea-Bogoso gold mine on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, embarked on an industrial strike against the new managers of the Bogoso-Prestea gold mine, Future Gold Resources (FGR).
Per information gathered by norvanreports, the industrial strike decision by the mineworkers was influenced by a number of issues key among them being the non-operationalisation of the firm since its sale to FGR in October 2020, unfair treatment of mineworkers and non-payment of severance package to permanent mineworkers.
In a media interaction, General Secretary for the Mineworkers Union of the Prestea-Bogoso gold mine, Samuel Kumi disclosed that the alleged new managers of the company – FGR – since taking over in October last year, had not made any investment in the gold mine.
“When the mine was sold, we were told that the new company was going to invest in the mine. However, as we speak now, not a single dime has been invested into the facility, so we want to know whether FGR is serious about operating the mine.”
“You can’t sell a mine that is said to have the largest concession in the whole of Ghana which stretches about 80 kilometres of resources from Tweapim to Mampong and the new owner not investing a single dollar in it since October. We want to know what is happening because you can’t operate a mine without investment”, he averred.
The strike, as also noted by Mr Kumi, was to also demand some answers and clarifications from the new managers of the gold mine as to which company actually owned the mine – FGR or Blue International Holdings.
According to the mineworkers, despite being aware of the fact that the gold mine has been sold to FGR by GSR, no officials of FGR have been seen operating the mine, adding that memos and letters to their leadership are from Blue International Holdings and not FGR.
“Currently as we speak, we don’t see officials of FGR operating the mines. We only hear of Blue Holdings or Blue International Group who writes memos and letters [to us]. So we want the leadership of [the company] to come and tell us who is the owner of this mine”, stated the General Secretary for the Mineworkers Union of the Prestea-Bogoso gold mine.
Read: Future Global Resources takes over Bogoso-Prestea mine at near zero cost
He also lamented about the lack of severance package for workers who were affected by the change in ownership of the mine.
He revealed that severance package for workers have not been paid since October last year and that all efforts to get management to do the needful had proven futile as they were being tossed between GSR and FGR.
“For permanent workers, we are talking about severance. When the mine was sold, permanent workers were left behind with their severance packages not paid.”
“You go to GSR and they say they are not the ones to pay. You come to FGR and they tell you the same thing. We want to know how and when they are going to pay our severance for us”, he stated.
GSR last year announced the sale of the Bogoso-Prestea gold mine to FGR for a total amount of $95 million for which payments was to be made according to a “staged payment arrangement.”
The ‘staged payments’ or deferred consideration payments were to be made as follows:
- The $5 million payment that was due on March 30, 2021 will now be payable by no later than May 31, 2021;
- The $10 million payment that was due to be paid on July 31, 2021 will be brought forward for payment by no later than May 31, 2021; and
- An amount of approximately $4.6m (comprised of the working capital balancing payment of approximately $4.3 million and fees of approximately $0.3 million for services provided by Caystar to FGR pursuant to a transition agreement dated September 30, 2020) will continue to fall due by no later than July 31, 2021.
However, GSR recently announced that it had made some amendments to the “staged payments” and in view of that had reprofiled payments to be made by Future Global Resources in a new agreement.
The reprofiled “staged payments” as announced by GSR are as follows;
- $15 million payment that was due on May 31, 2021 will now be payable by no later than July 16, 2021;
- Should FGR complete a financing transaction prior to July 16, 2021, $5 million will be immediately payable to Golden Star with the remaining $10 million continuing to fall due on July 16, 2021; and
- An amount of approximately $4.6m (comprised of the working capital balancing payment of approximately $4.3 million and fees of approximately $0.3 million for services provided by Caystar to FGR pursuant to a transition agreement dated September 30, 2020) will continue to fall due by no later than July 31, 2021.
