Newmont commits $34m to Ahafo South road upgrades through 2028

Newmont has allocated $34m to build and rehabilitate roads around its Ahafo South gold mine in Ghana's Ahafo region between 2025 and 2028, part of a widening effort by the miner to address decades-old infrastructure gaps in its host communities.

A dangerous corridor

The centrepiece of the near-term work is the 8.2km Hwidiem to Kenyase road, on which Newmont has already spent $9.1m to bring to completion. The company has also committed to building the 24.4km Ntotroso-Kenyase route and is collaborating with government on rehabilitating more than 40km of the Sunyani-Acherensua road, a stretch that local communities say has produced post-harvest losses for farmers, higher transport costs, and armed robbery incidents, including two reported deaths.

Town roads in Ntotroso, Wamahinso and Gyedu are also earmarked for rehabilitation in 2025, with local contractors carrying out the construction work. Alex Kofi Annin, general manager of the Ahafo South mine, said the approach was designed so that road-building benefits communities directly while creating employment for contractors based in the area.

Why a gold miner is fixing roads

Poor rural roads are a recurring source of friction between mining companies and the communities that host them across West Africa, since bad infrastructure both raises a mine's own logistics costs and fuels resentment when royalty and tax revenue is seen to bypass local needs. For Newmont, which has operated in the Ahafo region since Ahafo South entered commercial production in 2006, sustained community investment has become part of the licence to keep operating and expanding a mine complex that now also includes the newer Ahafo North project 30km away.

What happens next

The $34m programme runs to 2028, meaning further road segments and town rehabilitation projects are expected to be announced as construction proceeds. The commitment sits alongside other community spending channelled through the Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation, which has funded scholarships, health and other infrastructure projects in the same district for close to two decades. Continued delivery on the road programme will be one of the more visible measures of whether Newmont's social investment keeps pace with the scale of its Ghanaian gold operations as Ahafo North ramps up alongside the older Ahafo South pits.

Sources

• MyJoyOnline: Newmont Ahafo South mine allocates $34m for road construction between 2025 and 2028, 08 Jul 2025

Photo: Visitors inspecting Newmont's Ahafo mine complex in Ghana's Ahafo region. The EITI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.