The legal counsel for Akonta Mining, Kwame Adom Appiah, has pushed back against allegations of illegal mining by the company, describing them as politically motivated and lacking due process.
His response follows a directive by the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, ordering the immediate revocation of all mining licences held by Akonta Mining.
The Minister, at a press briefing on Monday, April 21, cited “overwhelming evidence” of illegal mining and referred to the company’s activities as part of a “criminal syndication.”
According to the Minister, investigations revealed that Akonta Mining encroached on compartments 49 and 121 of the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve, areas designated as protected, despite holding legal rights to operate off-reserve.
He added that the Minerals Commission has been instructed to revoke the company’s lease, and implicated forestry officials are to be interdicted while investigations continue.
In an interview on Morning Starr with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, Mr. Appiah refuted the allegations, asserting that Akonta Mining has never operated within the Tano Nimiri Forest.
He criticized the government’s approach, stating that the company was not given the opportunity to respond to the claims before the revocation decision was announced.
He further noted that illegal mining is a nationwide issue, and the presence of unlicensed miners in protected areas should not automatically implicate nearby legal operators.
He said, “That’s why I’m saying that what the minister said constitutes an allegation. It doesn’t constitute proof. You can get better proof when you call all parties to the table and you hear everybody. And after due process of the law, you establish that Akonto Mining has an ABCD. You don’t rise to the press and accuse people because of an allegation made by another person. You see, we were here in Kumasi when, after the 2024 election, some men went into the concession of AGA, but for the security people there, if they had succeeded in mining the other person who did the forest over there, would the government have blamed it on AGA? We all admit that we have illegal miners across the country. The fact that we have illegal miners, who would dare to go into another people’s land to mine, or a government concession, or a government reserve forest to mine, does not mean that the neighbor is at fault.
Mr. Appiah added, “The proper thing is that you work out the processes. Let us call the other person. Let us hear him. But because it is a company owned by people on the other side, the story that we’ve received from those who are alleging that A, B, C, D. Oh, we are good to go. Let’s conduct a press conference and then blame the opponents. My brother, it is very dangerous and we must not condone this. Once people have made an allegation, the proper thing is to constitute a committee to look into that, or at least write to the person, the other one, who holds a lease, write to that company. These are the allegations made against you. What are your answers? And then the company will provide its answers. If at the end of the day, you have to go conduct further investigation, you do that. So no such thing was done. The government did not seek to get your side of the story at all. But we’ve not even been caught. There’s no formal letter that has been written to us. They just rely on the allegations made by some people that they said they figured from the Tano Numeri Forest. And that allegation constitutes their judgment. And if it is fair, you know. If it is not fair, you are aware.”
When asked if he believed the allegations were politically driven, he responded, “That is my fear, and that is my suspicion. Otherwise, if due process had been followed, we wouldn’t have come to this conclusion.”
Akonta Mining maintains that its operations are legal and fully permitted by the Minerals Commission, with activities restricted to its concessions in Samreboi and Abokoase.
