Six workers of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited died while four others sustained injuries following the collapse of a concrete tunnel roof at its Ahafo mill expansion project here in Ahafo.
The accident occurred around 2:00pm last Saturday.
The deceased have been identified by the police as Kwadwo Asare, Gideon Amankwaa, Kojo Bismark, Ben Brako, Agyei Wale and Ebenezer Sarfo.
The injured are Musa Sulemana, Seth Kwame, Daniel Dzitor and one other person whose identity could not be confirmed.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu together with some officials of the Minerals Commission and media personnel inspected the incident site yesterday to know at firsthand the causal factors and to sympathise with the bereaved families and staff.
Briefing the team, Okyere Yaw Ntrama, acting General Manager of the Ahafo Mine Site, said the deceased were contractor employees with construction and engineering firm, Consar Company Limited, who were sub-contracted by Newmont Ghana to undertake a part of its expansion project.
He said the deceased were working at the Mine when the reclaim tunnel roof of the Ahafo Mill expansion project collapsed, resulting in the fatality.
After 10 hours of recovery exercise, Mr Ntrama said the six bodies have been deposited at the Hwidiem Government Hospital mortuary and families duly informed of the incident while the injured have been treated and discharged by the company’s SOS Clinic.
Mr Amewu, who visited some of the bereaved families, extended to them the government’s condolence adding that full scale investigation into the incident was ongoing to determine the cause.
Per the initial report and discussions with Newmont, he said the accident was a result of structural failure in the process of mounting a concrete.
He said the Minerals Commission has taken over the site to produce detailed investigation and bring to the fore what really led to the fatality.
He was confident the report would be ready in about two weeks, which would inform the Ministry of its next line of action.
“We will wait for the result and that would help us in taking our next course. But for sure, if there was negligence on anybody’s part, the law will be applied,” Mr Amewu stated.
Meanwhile a statement issued by Newmont Ghana Gold Limited said it had suspended operations at its Ahafo mine site.
The statement said all other employees working at the site have been safely relocated to a safer ground and scene of the accident condoned off.
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