An Australian mining company called Cassius Mining Limited has filed a claim for $443 million against government of Ghana for multiple contract breaches that resulted in Casius losing the entire value of its gold mine in the Upper East.
Cassius Mining filed the claim, witness statements and independent expert reports at the International Tribunal in London, two years after The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s Blood Gold investigation revealed a neighbouring Chinese-state-linked mining company had dug hundreds of metres underground into its concession and plundered tens of millions of dollars in gold from its veins.
Shaanxi, the Chinese miner now known as Earl International, has also been accused of causing dozens of deaths in northern Ghana through poisonous gases. More than 60 miners have been killed in Shaanxi’s mines since 2013.
But the Ghanaian government has continued to support the Chinese-state-linked company despite multiple claims of human rights abuse, environmental destruction and theft, while shutting down Cassius’ operations. Shaanxi has denied the allegations.
In a statement to the ASX on Tuesday, Cassius’ Chief Executive James Arkoudis and managing director David Chidlow said the claim for damages has been filed by the company’s lawyers, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, with the International Tribunal.
“The claim quantum of $US277 million ($443 million) is an independent expert assessment of Cassius’ lost profits and damages for the loss of opportunity to develop, establish and benefit from a producing gold mine in its licensed area in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region of Ghana,” the company said.
“Ghana’s actions, including its failure to renew Cassius’s prospecting licence, has resulted in Cassius being deprived of the entire value and profits of its gold project in Ghana.”
The Ghanaian government, which has not commented on the case because it is before the court, will now file its defence, including all supporting material and witness statements.
Ghana’s opposition has targeted the government for the way it handled the dispute, arguing it has damaged the country’s ability to attract international investment.
“Your reports have clearly shown that there is some cover-up in favour of Shaanxi by the state,” opposition MP and Lands and Forestry Committee member Alhassan Sayibu Suhiyini said last year.
“I do not understand why the state is pussyfooting on strongly stating a position on this conflict between Shaanxi and Cassius. And that is why it is disappointing that it has been allowed to go this far to a point where a judgment debt seems to be hanging over the state.”
Cassius’ former mining manager Andrew Head, who witnessed 16 deaths at the Shaanxi site, accused the Chinese-state-linked company of deliberately gassing local small-scale miners to stop them from scraping away meagre scraps of gold to help feed their families.
“They were going out of their way to hurt, maim and kill people to stop them from stealing the gold that they were actually stealing from the Australian mine,” he said in 2022. “It was murder, pure and simple. I have no doubt in my mind that it was.”
