Information gathered has indicated a determined efforts by some persons to continue the attacks on Electrochem Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the McDan Group in Ada.
Interestingly, two-third of the Ada population is in agreement with Electrochem which had been granted a 15-year lease to transform the Ada Songor salt concession which hitherto had been left to deteriorate due to mismanagement.
However, in spite of the many activities ongoing regarding the development of the Songor concession, some few elements have planned to make 2024 a very unpleasant year for the company and its activities.
Salt miners operating on a concession leased to Electrochem Ghana Limited for its salt mining operation are reported to have vowed to resist any ejection by the company.
Their resistance follows the Ada East District Assembly’s issuance of a final warning to communities around the Songor Lagoon, notifying them to vacate Electrochem’s concession to allow the company to start its operations on January 3, 2024.
Meanwhile, information is that the group of miners who are threatening and kicking against their ejection, this news portal has gathered, are just few illegal miners whose operations are considered detrimental to the smooth running of the Songor concession.
Although they are very much aware that the contract had already been signed between the Government of Ghana and Electrochem, they are trying to frustrate management of the company from operating.
Meanwhile, the chiefs and people of Ada are in full support of Electrochem and have vowed to ensure that the company continue to execute its mandate as stated in the Agreement between it and government.
According to residents, Electrochem has done a lot for them and questioned the whereabouts of the so-called businessmen who the MP is trying to front for, when the concession was left to deteriorate.
They described the so-called miners as “selfish” and enemies of progress who have made themselves saboteurs always doing the bidding of their paymasters who are behind the scenes and plotting for the division of the concession.
The concession which had been in existence for over 54 years, had been left in the hands of the locals.
Meanwhile, apart from the numerous benefits the people of Ada are enjoying with the coming of Electrochem, the company has also planned several activities which will make lives better for the people of Ada including creating more job opportunities for the youth.
The company is employing additional 2500 workers for manual mining as it enters next year.
The company has already begun employing this number of workers to beef up its workforce as the company’s activities in Ada Songoor becomes fully operational.
Recently, the Company employed 372 more people and needs about 2,500 additional people for manual mining.
Electrochem Ghana Limited has reserve part of its developed pans for manual mining to solve the unemployment problems in the Ada traditional area through the creation of additional jobs.
The company intends to employ over 7,000 Ghanaian youth by next year.
Currently, 3000 persons have been employed in the first phase of the project with 4,000 more to be engaged when the salt concession hits full operations in 2024.
Electrochem has indeed managed to transform the concession in two years and provided jobs to the local people to ultimately boost the economy.
Currently the company is producing 650,000 metric tons of salt and would move to one million metric tons next year and two million by 2025.
The $88-million Electrochem Salt Washing Plant processes 650,000 tonnes of industrial salt per annum, mined from a 41,000-acre field, straddling at least 33 communities in the Ada Songhor Salt site.
The plant, already in operation and producing at 99.99 per cent purity, has become the biggest in Africa, larger in acreage than the Walvis Bay of Namibia, which is about 16,700 acres hitherto known to be the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa.