Exton Cubic Group Limited’s complaints about the revocation of its license are unjustified, the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, John Peter Amewu has stated.
The Exton Cubic threatened to use available legal means to overturn government’s revocation of its license, but Mr. Amewu maintains the mining company’s processes in acquiring the lease were questionable.
“The processes leading to the grant of the license were not quite clear and were not transparent, very opaque. So it called for a lot of questions. We believe that if the processes had taken time and the duration for the various permits were within the framework, this issue wouldn’t have come out.”
“There are processes and durations that one needs to pass through. If for some reason, one has to go beyond those processes, that will not be an acceptable permit at all. We want to do it within the regulated format,” the Minister said.
Mr. Amewu was speaking during a meeting with mining investors as part of the African Downunder Conference in Australia, where he also charged mining investors to comply with the rules and regulations of the industry.
Exton’s complaints
Exton Cubic Group, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resource, said the revocation of their exploration permit would deter private investors from creating jobs in Ghana.
The company said Mr. Amewu disrespected the sanctity of signed agreements and exhibited arbitrary and a gross abuse of executive power when he revoked the contract.
Mr. Amewu, last week, announced that Exton Cubic had not met all the legal requirements to permit the company to prospect for bauxite in the Tano-Offin Forest Reserve in the Ashanti Region, thus rendering their three mining leases invalid.
Earth moving equipment and vehicles belonging to Exton Cubic’s sub-contractor, Ibrahim Mahama’s Engineers and Planners (E&P), had earlier been impounded at Nyinahin, the town where the forest reserve is located.
This was on the orders of the Ashanti Regional Minister following suspicions the mining company was operating illegally.
At the time, Mr. Amewu, came out to say that his Ministry had granted Exton Cubic Group Limited an entry permit into the Nyinahin bauxite concession.
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