Ghanaian minister’s home catches fire while he is in Australia

The home of the Ghanaian minister involved in negotiations over a deadly $395 million mining dispute between Australian and Chinese state-linked mining companies has caught fire, as community anger grows in response to the government’s handling of the affair.

Mining minister Samuel Jinapor was in Australia when his house in the capital, Accra, caught fire on Saturday AEST. The minister had met with officials from Australian miner Cassius in Perth hours before the blaze took hold of the second floor of his house in the suburb of Adjiringanor.

Samuel Jinapor, Ghana’s natural resources ministerCredit: Bloomberg

Jinapor and the Ghanaian Minerals Commission had agreed to investigate the alleged theft of millions of dollars worth of gold from an Australian mine in Africa by Chinese state-linked company Shaanxi and question its officials over the deaths of dozens of local miners in its pits in northern Ghana.

Ghana’s National Fire Service is investigating the cause of the fire. The blaze gutted an upstairs bedroom leaving behind a trail of blackened shoes, clothes and a Louis Vuitton labelled handbag.

The fire at the Jinapor residence in Accra

In Ghana, senior political leaders, local activists and villagers have called for the Ghanaian government to be held to account for the incidents, revealed by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age investigation Blood Gold, accusing the government of abandoning them while Shaanxi had its license expanded to 50 times its original size. Jinapor became mining minister in 2021, two years after the deadliest incident at the mine in which 16 local miners were allegedly killed by poisonous gasses to stop them from entering the Chinese territory.

Talensi pastor Albert Naa said the community had received minimal attention from local, regional or national authorities.

“For the past years that these incidents have been ongoing, no single compensation has been paid to anybody,” he said. “That is what frightens us.”

On social media, some Ghanaians suggested the fire was a response to the frustration caused by the government’s mismanagement of mining communities.

Senior opposition MP James Agalga has called for the state to take steps to prosecute Shaanxi. The Chinese state-linked miner has denied the allegations.

“Those left behind – breadwinners, the victims – they have to be adequately and properly compensated,” he said.

The fire at the Jinapor residence gutted an upstairs bedroom.

Cassius is also taking the Ghanaian government to the London Court of International Arbitration for $395 million over claims the Ghanaian government allowed Shaanxi to continue to trespass on its land to steal millions of dollars in gold, attempted to redraw boundaries in favour of the Chinese miner and failed to act on allegations of demonstrated corruption at senior levels of the government.

Jinapor defended Ghana’s reputation as a safe investment destination at the Africa Down Under conference in Perth on Friday.

“Fortunately in Ghana, the rule of law is the norm, not the exception,” he said. “Our goal is to make Ghana the mining heart of Africa. We will do this in an atmosphere of transparency and in accord with the highest standards of integrity.”

Ghana’s National Fire Service was contacted for comment.

With Peter Milne