Chinese Strike $500m Worth Of Gold In Ghana With Secret Method

Scores of villagers from a small town in China’s southern Guangxi province have struck gold worth more than 1 billion yuan in Ghana - but they're keeping their method a secret, reported the 21st Century Business Herald. An estimated 50,000 gold diggers, known as “the Shanglin gang", work in Ghana’s gold mines, Africa's largest producer of the metal after South Africa. Many have been lured to the foreign land after hearing friends and relatives' outrageous stories of their success. They are Shanglin villagers who have started from scratch, ambitious high school dropouts and hard working laborers eager to trade their sweat for cash. They have made a fortune in the West African country in the past eight years by investing and working in small and medium-sized gold mines, said the report. One such miner reportedly brought a gold bar to a relative as a “gift” upon returning to his hometown. Another person ordered a Ferrari over the phone from Hong Kong airport while he was transferring to a flight home. While to many these revelations sounds like wild rumours, an insider working at a local bank produced solid proof of their riches. In May and June 2011 alone, he said, more than 1 billion yuan (HK$1.2 billion) was wired into Shanglin by villagers working abroad, dwarfing the township’s 2012 revenue of little more than 300 million yuan. When the Shanglin villagers arrived in Ghana in 2005, larger sites for hard-rock gold mining had already been snapped up by international corporations. Smaller sites, using the placer mining technique usually near rivers, were traditionally run by quasi-professional independent operations. Placer mining, in which gold is extracted from other materials using water, had been so challenging that many of the Shanglin gang's Chinese predecessors had failed. Workers from northern Heilongjiang and southern Hunan provinces who ahead of the Shanglin villagers failed to turn a profit due to outdated techniques that led to low efficiency, said the report. Although placer deposits are harder to work with, they still contribute to 30 to 40 per cent of the total gold produced in Ghana. The Shanglin gang, however, had a “killer” technique involving remodelled sand pumps, secret technology they have since kept to themselves. This has revolutionised placer mining in Ghana and made the business hugely profitable. An average shop makes 100,000 yuan in gross profit daily, says the report citing a worker. Many operations thus easily make tens of millions yuan a year. Working with local village heads and labourers, the gang quickly expanded their business. They have built more than 1,000 operations by investing more than 3 billion yuan, according to an estimate by a Shanglin investor. In fact, almost all of the smaller mines in Ghana are now controlled by the Shanglin gang. An increasing number of Shanglin immigrants have even settled down there and married local women. Casinos have thrived as well because of their enthusiasm for gambling. Rumours are that some 20 per cent of the money earned by Shanglin people has been lost to gambling. Life in Ghana, however, is far from a fairy tale. Shanglin workers say they are frequently threatened and robbed, if not harassed by corrupt local officials. On many occasions they say they were able to buy their way out - but not always. In March, a Shanglin man died after being shot 27 times by a robber.

Source: www.scmp.com

US applauds Ghana’s political institutions in the wake of Election Petition

The United States is pleased with the on-going political situation in Ghana with regards to the current petition challenging the outcome of the December 2012 presidential polls in court.

Mr Michael Pelletier, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, African Affairs of the U.S Department of State, said “it shows that the institutions are working in Ghana and people have confidence in the institutions.”

Mr Pelletier said this when speaking with the Ghana News Agency at the US Department of State building in Washington DC on Friday after meeting with 2013 Spring Professional Fellows to address U.S-Africa foreign policy issues.

Professional Fellows are up and coming and mid-level emerging leaders, who are competitively selected from across the globe by partner agencies of the U.S Department of State to come to the U.S and work with U.S public and private institutions and NGOs with the aim to broaden their expertise as well as understanding of American society.

For this year’s Spring programme, 220 professionals in the areas of legislation, economics and media were selected from over 40 countries including Ghana, China, Peru, Costa Rica, to participate in an event where they spent four weeks working with various U.S institutions.

Some pundits have suggested that the on-going election petition case at the Supreme Court has and or might affect investor confidence in Ghana but Mr Pelletier said the election petition case did not affect U.S-Ghana relations in anyway adding it also did not undermine or cast a slur on Ghana’s integrity amongst the investment community in the U.S.

He said “you have the laws and the rules and you are just following the laws to address your grievances and that is right.”

The 2012 presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, his running mate Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and Chairman of the NPP, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey are challenging the outcome of the December 2012 presidential results at the Supreme Court, and have requested the court to annul substantial amount of votes secured by the winner, President John Mahama, citing alleged irregularities during the polls.

Mr Pelletier said the U.S government would continue to work with the Ghana government to promote the welfare of the people in-line with its (U.S government) foreign policy objectives, which included strengthening democratic institutions, ensuring rule of law, free press, and promoting opportunities in economic growth and development.

Ms Tara Sonenshine, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs said the Professional Fellows Programme was at the core of the U.S government’s ideology and practicality adding it promoted mutual understanding between the U.S and other peoples across the world.

GNA  

Chinese Deny Killing Two Ghanaians In Obuasi

The two Chinese in custody for killing two people at Obuasi have denied carrying out the act. According to the Obuasi Divisional Police Command, Crime Officer DSP Kwabena Otuo Acheampong the Chinese fired guns at some four people who confronted them for encroaching on their concession, killing two. In an interview with Citi News DSP Kwabena Otuo Acheampong stated that the Chinese would help them in their investigations. He opined that although they “claim not to have taken part in the killings neither do they have knowledge of the killers; they would assist the police in their investigations.” The Obuasi police Command arrested two illegal Chinese gold miners for allegedly gunning down two Ghanaians. The deceased identified as Nana Boateng and Eric Ofori were reportedly shot dead on Thursday by the Chinese miners at Amamiriwa in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.

Source: Citifmonline