Australian gold miner makes $443 million claim in international court

An Australian mining company has filed a claim for $443 million against the Ghanaian government for multiple contract breaches that resulted in it losing the entire value of its gold mine in West Africa.

Cassius Mining filed the claim, witness statements and independent expert reports at the International Tribunal in London on Tuesday, two years after The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Blood Gold investigation revealed a neighbouring Chinese-state-linked mining company had dug hundreds of metres underground into its concession and plundered tens of millions of dollars in gold from its veins.

Cassius chief executive James Arkoudis, managing director David Chidlow and former mining manager Andrew Head. Credit: Nathan Perri

Shaanxi, the Chinese miner now known as Earl International, has also been accused of causing dozens of deaths in northern Ghana through poisonous gases. More than 60 miners have been killed in Shaanxi’s mines since 2013.

But the Ghanaian government has continued to support the Chinese-state-linked company despite multiple claims of human rights abuse, environmental destruction and theft, while shutting down Cassius’ operations. Shaanxi has denied the allegations.

In a statement to the ASX on Tuesday, Cassius’ chief executive James Arkoudis and managing director David Chidlow said the claim for damages has been filed by the company’s lawyers, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, with the International Tribunal.

“The claim quantum of $US277 million ($443 million) is an independent expert assessment of Cassius’ lost profits and damages for the loss of opportunity to develop, establish and benefit from a producing gold mine in its licensed area in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region of Ghana,” the company said.

Cassius CEO James Arkoudis (in blue T-shirt) and managing director David Chidlow with local leaders in Ghana.

“Ghana’s actions, including its failure to renew Cassius’s prospecting licence, has resulted in Cassius being deprived of the entire value and profits of its gold project in Ghana.”

The Ghanaian government, which has not commented on the case because it is before the court, will now file its defence, including all supporting material and witness statements.

Ghana’s opposition has targeted the government for the way it handled the dispute, arguing it has damaged the country’s ability to attract international investment.

“Your reports have clearly shown that there is some cover-up in favour of Shaanxi by the state,” opposition MP and Lands and Forestry Committee member Alhassan Sayibu Suhiyini said last year.

“I do not understand why the state is pussyfooting on strongly stating a position on this conflict between Shaanxi and Cassius. And that is why it is disappointing that it has been allowed to go this far to a point where a judgment debt seems to be hanging over the state.”

Cassius’ former mining manager Andrew Head, who witnessed 16 deaths at the Shaanxi site, accused the Chinese-state-linked company of deliberately gassing local small-scale miners to stop them from scraping away meagre scraps of gold to help feed their families.

“They were going out of their way to hurt, maim and kill people to stop them from stealing the gold that they were actually stealing from the Australian mine,” he said in 2022. “It was murder, pure and simple. I have no doubt in my mind that it was.”

Shaanxi’s spokesman denied these allegations.

Former Australian mining project manager Andrew Head.Credit: Janie Barrett

“Somebody can say we, oh, we killed 30. Somebody can say, oh, the company killed 40. The company killed 60. The company killed 70,” he said.

“My response to that one is that it is not true. The company has never killed an individual. [It has not] consciously wanted to kill somebody. In fact, if we are killing people, people will not come and work with us.”

Since Blood Gold was published in 2022, Ghanaian soldiers have kicked residents out of their homes to make way for the expansion of the Shaanxi site, at least another three miners have been killed and another two seriously injured.

Protests have erupted in the local community over claims of economic and environmental exploitation by the company.

“I find it deeply, deeply worrying that some of these things continue to happen at our mining sites, mostly perpetrated by foreign firms who are well aware that they would not be able to get away with some of these things in their own countries,” Suhiyini said.

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