‘Lives have been lost’: Blood Gold investigation sparks push for criminal probe

A senior politician says a Chinese state-backed miner should be considered for criminal prosecution after the deaths of dozens of miners next to an Australian mine site from which it allegedly stole millions of dollars worth of gold.

Andrew Head, a former mining manager at Cassius, accused Shaanxi of murdering local miners by blasting them with chlorine poisoning to protect the company’s investment in northern Ghana. Head said he had “no doubt in his mind” it was “murder, pure and simple”.

Teni Ghaatuon, mourns her husband, James Nbalebna, who died aged 21 from a mine blast by the Chinese mining company Shaanxi.Credit: Francis Kokoroko

Head’s allegations, supported by village leaders and victims’ families spoken to by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, have been denied by Shaanxi. The claims are part of a five-year dispute between the Australian-run Cassius and Shaanxi that also involves allegations of trespass, theft and corruption at the highest levels of the Ghanaian judiciary.

James Agalga – a senior opposition MP, former minister and deputy leader of Ghana’s Defence and Interior Committee – said the allegations were serious and could be tested by a criminal court.

“If the negligence was criminal in nature, then the state must take steps to prosecute,” he said. “In addition to that, human lives have been lost. Those left behind, breadwinners, the victims, they have to be adequately and properly compensated.”

The case between Cassius and Shaanxi has been tried in a civil court in Ghana, but the trial has been beset by delays and allegations of bribery involving a key senior judge. Cassius is now taking the Ghanian government to the London Court of International Arbitration over $395 million in losses from the Gban project. It claims the Ghanaian government allowed Shaanxi to continue to trespass on its land to steal millions of dollars in gold buried in the Australian concession while blocking the ability of Cassius to renew its licence.

Ebenezer Bognaab, a spokesman for Shaanxi, said it received no favours from the Ghanaian government.

“We are a proper licensed mining company, mining according to the rules and laws of the mining industry in Ghana, and we do not need the help of any politician to operate,” he said.

The Shaanxi mine has been dogged by claims of human rights abuse. More than 60 miners have been killed in the company’s mines since 2013.

The company was fined $70,000 for the incident in 2019 which was witnessed by Head and where 16 local miners died. But the families of the miners have not received any compensation from the Chinese state-linked company. Shaanxi claims the local miners were illegally prospecting for gold on their land and they cannot be held accountable for their actions. A civil lawsuit has been bogged down for more than three years as local farmers struggle to support the case brought by the victim’s families. The case has never been heard in a criminal court.

Former Cassius mining project manager, Andrew Head, left. Ghana MP James Agalga, right.Credit: Janie Barrett/Francis Kokoroko

Local pastor Albert Naa said Ghanaian authorities had done nothing to help his community.

“One would expect that if these people are not doing what is good or right, the authorities, local or national, may step in to do something for us,” he said. “But for the past years that these incidents have been ongoing, no single compensation has been paid to anybody. And that is what frightens us. It scares us. It means there is nothing we can do.”

Teni Ghaatuon has struggled to feed her family since her 21-year-old husband James Nbalebna died in the mine.

“We have been relying on handouts from everyone,” she said.

Chinese state-backed investment has escalated rapidly in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa over the past decade, far outstripping the Pacific where there is a growing focus on geopolitical tension.

Beijing is now Africa’s largest creditor and the single largest financier of African infrastructure. There are now almost 200,000 Chinese workers and 10,000 Chinese-owned companies across the continent.

But that rapid expansion has also left some communities distraught.

Tii-roug Yaro Zumah, who has lost six brothers to the Shaanxi mine, said there should be international scrutiny on China’s commercial activities.

An aerial view of the Shaanxi Mining facility in northern Ghana.Credit: Francis Kokoroko

“Shaanxi is making money from our land, and they are using the money against us,” he said. “There needs to be international pressure on China and the actions of its companies.”

Local leaders say Shaanxi has failed to provide any meaningful infrastructure for the Gban community, a village where children still have to carry their own chairs to school and Shea fruit trees that have supported locals for generations are being cut down to make way for the mine.

Bognaab said one of the major challenges of running a mining company “is high expectations from stakeholders’ [villagers].” He said the company was building a new school for the village.

Shaanxi rebranded as Earl International in September and has been authorised to mine a plot 50 times its original size by the Ghanaian Minerals Commission.

Agalga has threatened to summon ministers to appear before the Defence and Interior Committee to answer questions about how millions of dollars in gold have gone missing from the country. Last June, three Shaanxi employees were caught at Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport with 21 bars of gold worth $860,000.

“Ghana is the leading producer of gold, but what do we have to show for it? It’s because we allow most of the companies to take out their profits and their capital,” Agalga said.

Agalga said he did not want to single out Chinese mining companies, which have provided important economic stimulus in some parts of Ghana, but said they needed to comply with local laws.

“I don’t want it to look like I am targeting China. All mining companies in our country have, in one way or the other, abused the rights of the indigenous people,” he said. “But of course you can’t also pretend that the Chinese nationals have not played a dominant role in this unholy enterprise.”

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