Ghana's Parliament commends Newmont's Ahafo South environmental record

Ghana's Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Science and Technology has commended Newmont's Ahafo South mine for its environmental management, after an inspection of the site near Kenyasi in the Asutifi North district found reclamation and water-protection work consistent with international best practice.

What the committee inspected

The delegation, led by ranking member and Kumawu MP Professor Adams Hamza, toured reclaimed mine land, waste-management systems, water-protection structures and the mine's environmental monitoring processes. The visit formed part of Parliament's constitutional oversight role, intended to check that resource extraction is balanced against environmental sustainability for future generations. Samuel Bonney Noi, process manager and acting general manager at Ahafo South, told the committee the company remained committed to maintaining international best practices at the site.

Two decades of production and payments

Ahafo South has been in commercial production since 2006 and now produces between roughly 500,000 and nearly 800,000oz of gold a year. Over that period, Newmont says the mine has contributed more than $2bn in taxes and royalties to the Ghanaian state, underlining the scale of the operation's fiscal footprint even as scrutiny of mining's environmental impact intensifies elsewhere in the country.

Why the scrutiny matters

Ghana has faced years of public pressure over the environmental damage caused by illegal small-scale mining, or galamsey, which has degraded water bodies and farmland in several regions. Large formal operators such as Newmont are often held up as a contrast to that damage, and a favourable parliamentary assessment offers reputational reassurance at a time when Ghanaian lawmakers and civil society are pushing for tighter enforcement across the sector. It also reinforces the case Newmont has been making publicly for a stable and predictable regulatory and fiscal environment as it invests further in the Ahafo complex.

What happens next

The committee's findings are expected to feed into Parliament's broader oversight of the mining sector's environmental compliance. For Newmont, continued adherence to reclamation and water-protection commitments at Ahafo South will remain under periodic legislative review as the company manages the tail end of that mine's life alongside the ramp-up of the newer Ahafo North operation nearby. Lawmakers on the committee indicated they would continue to track the mine's performance through further site visits and reporting requirements in subsequent parliamentary sessions.

Sources

• MyJoyOnline: Parliament commends Newmont Ahafo South Mine for compliance with environmental regulations, 23 Jan 2026

Photo: A water reservoir used in the ore-processing operations at Newmont's Ahafo mine in Ghana. The EITI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.