King Midas Mining Company Under Attack

woensdag 23 mei 2007

General News of Friday, 19 April 2002

Two mining companies clash over concession

An Nkawie Community tribunal, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, has remanded nine persons including two chiefs in police custody following a clash between security officers of two gold mining companies in the Amansie West District.
Nana Kofi Akwaboah, Chief of Geninso and Nana Atuku Barfour, Nkosuohene of Akataniase and seven others were allegedly implicated in a clash between the security officers of Bonte Goldmines Limited and Lost Valley Mining Company over concession rights.
Their pleas were not taken and they would reappear on 25 April 2002. Assistant Superintendent of Police Samuel Obuobi Anyafo, Abuakwa District Police Commander told the Ghana News Agency, that he received a complaint from a security officer of Bonte Goldmines that Lost Valley Mining Company, which is also known as King Midas Company, had trespassed and was mining within its concession. He said on 10 April, Mr Francis Nkansah Agyare, Deputy Chief Security Officer of Bonte, came to the police at Abuakwa to ask for permission to go and drive away the workers of Lost Valley from their concession. ASP Anyafo said he refused to give them the permission because the Lost Valley Security officers were also armed even though Bonte had many more officers. He said he reported the matter to the Atwima District Security Council, which wrote letters to both companies on 12 April to come for settlement.However, on 14 April 2002 two security officers of Bonte came to report that Nana Akwaboah had mobilised young men in his town to attack workers of Bonte, who were repairing a broken down excavator about three kilometres from the disputed land.
The attackers deflated the tyres of a pickup vehicle the mechanics had used to get to the place, locked the glasses and took away the keys and threatened to return to burn the excavator and the pickup. ASP Anyafo said he reported the matter to his Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent I.K. Kugbey, who directed him to go and assess the situation. When he got to Geninso with seven policemen, he met Nana Akwaboah in his palace but the chief sent for his people, who flocked into the palace. In the face of the confusion that was brewing they retreated. He said on Tuesday with a team of 16 soldiers and 12 policemen they were able to restore peace in the area and Nana Akwaboah was arrested at Manso Nkwanta, where he had gone to see the Paramount Chief. He and other concerned chiefs and elders were severely beaten by both police and army members, before being taken into custody.
ASP Anyafo said officers of the Army of the Northern Region, arrested three persons of interest: Patrick J. Walen, who is the Chief Executive Officer of King Midas Mining Company Ltd. and a Dutch citizen, but a resident in Canada; Peter Kyei Kwarteng, Mining Engineer and metallurgist; and Kenneth Kunkyebe, Site Manager, all of Lost Valley Gold Mines and King Midas Mining Company. They were taken to Kumasi police headquarters. Senior officers of the CID, against Army wishes, have adamently refused to incarcerate the King Midas cadres as they are known to have been upstanding persons and known to be under the scrutiny of other mining companies greedy for gold-rich land, therefore they have been given police inquiry bail, while investigations continue.
Source:gna

Gold mining in Panama

Pat,

I received your last emails and have this reply. I understand your situation in Africa and suggest that you proceed there for now. I have had no luck finding the funds to make te move here in Panama. I had three different meetings with three different groups over the last two days regarded your move here an got turned down.

I am under no pressure to do any deals fast, and no sort fuses to race ito production. I received and we have approved the new agreement with my brother for the hardrock. My extraction permit is renewed for another 10 ten years. I got all my accounts paid and have no problems with any aspect of my projects at this time. The Government will soon reduce the taxes on gold production from 4% to 0.5% or so they are telling me.

I have the funds in place to set up and start running my small dredging operation in about 35 days in an area on the Barrera that is running around 5 grams per cubic meter. I will be completing work on my camps and will resume filming at the property as well. Lets see how things progress for us both into the first part of the new year before we try to jump in anything. I can meet with you and your brother early next week at my house in Marysville if you still want to or perhaps the two of you could come to Panama sometime later this year to tour the mine in person. I should be in production and producing lots of nice yellow metal. Let me know what you are going to do.

Herb

Gold room equipment

Prostate & Trommels
Bill,

I am sorry to hear about your prostate. I hope all is going well now, or at least better.

It looks like you live near Arizona. I drove through your town once on my way north to Goldfield Engineering in Provo. Anyway, I don't want to put pressure on you. I am not all that much in a hurry. I'd still have to figure out how to get those things transported. So what about the trommels you have in your yard? You use all of them? As for sturdiness, the requirements for full time use are different from a weekend user, of course. The one I'd use in the field would be under duress, that's for sure. A small one in the goldroom like the one you described below would be used for 45 minutes a day, under supervision, so it might be useful.

My experience is it's the wheels that support the trommel that are most prone to problems, we'd need a number of spare ones.

I'm not sure what Keene sluice you are talking about. They're pretty expensive, too. I think you probably first have to doodle with your pocket calculator to see how much you'd want, without pinning yourself down on any fixed amount. Some rough estimates is good enough for now.