Ban on Akara's gold mine ops ends today

Ban on Akara's gold mine ops ends today

Industrial officials plan to lift a ban on gold mining for Akara Resources Plc today.

The company has to follow four conditions, including completing a probe into effects on the environment and helping sick villagers.

The ban's end is a "joint resolution" between representatives of villagers, the company and the Department of Primary Industries and Mines and was reached at a meeting yesterday, said department chief Suraphong Chiengtong.

Akara, which runs the Chatree mining complex straddling the northern provinces of Phichit, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun, was ordered to temporarily stop its operations in mid-January after villagers accused it of polluting the environment and exposing them to harmful levels of hazardous substances.

To resume mining operations, Akara is required to hold public hearings in the affected provinces to discuss the cause of the problem, allow villagers' representatives to join authorities in inspecting the mining operations, improve the firm's work to create better understanding with local villagers and treat any villager whose illness is a result of its work.

The firm should take responsibility for villagers with harmful levels of heavy metals in their blood, Mr Suraphong said.

Tests on 730 villagers living near the mine in Phichit revealed more than half had high levels of arsenic and manganese in their blood, according to a joint-examination by Rangsit University and the Central Institute of Forensic Science in November last year.

During yesterday's meeting, participants agreed to give the firm the green light because it has fulfilled requirements by submitting all necessary documents to the department, Mr Suraphong said.

The documents include a list of those who have received medical checkups and treatment and evidence that the company hired experts to identify the causes of illness among villagers living near the mine, he said.

The meeting's decision disappointed Suekanya Teerachartdamrong, co-leader of a group of affected villagers in the three provinces.

She disagreed with the mine reopening because the investigation has not been finished.

Conditions for the mine's reopening are "a prevention of future problems rather than a solution to ongoing ones", she said.

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