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Report

31 Jan 2017

Author:
Centre de Commerce International pour le Développement (CECIDE) et Mêmes Droits pour Tous (MDT) (Guinée)

Involuntary Resettlement for the Extension of a Gold Mine in Kintinian : Kintinian, Guinea – Fact-Finding Mission Report

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Since the announcement in March 2015 by Société AngloGold Ashanti de Guinée (“SAG”) that its operati ons at the gold mine of Siguiri would end in May 2016 if it remained limited to its current perimeter, the mining company and public authorities have tried everything to ensure the extension of SAG’s operations to at least one area within its c oncession: “Area One”. Such an extension required the resettlement of around 380 Kintinian families. The resettlement process was marked by several improprieties, including the involvement of the military and other security forces during the census and inventory process. The findings of the field mission led by two Guinean NGOs regarding wrongdoings in the resettlement process conducted by SAG revolve around six main points: (1) physical violence and intimidation; (2) contested legality of signed resettlement agreements ; (3) lack of legally required information and consultation ; (4) paltry compensation; (5) inadequate measures to restore the communities’ livelihoods ; (6) serious barriers to access to remedy...e. Negotiations led by residents asking for, among other things, local job creation, have failed and led to the arrest and imprisonment of negotiators...The arrival of security forces was accompanied by theft, violence and waves of arrests...key affected communities were left out of the consultation...Directly affected local communities were not consulted in the design of the matrix to be used to calculate their resettlement compensation while the local legal framework was widely insufficient...Most of the individuals who participated in the investigation stated that they did not know whether SAG had a grievance mechanism....SAG confirms that security forces were present in Kintinian during the inventory but believes that “there was never any coordination between SAG and the military” and that the military “did not, under any circumstances, participate in the inventory process...SAG acknowledges the absence of a public interest decree as provided in...the Guinean Land Code in the context of an expropriation...Accordingly, no public interest declaration was granted in relation to this project.”...SAG asserts that it has met all of its commitments. AngloGold denies all allegations regarding flaws in the inventory process...SAG stated that it found the communities’ demands regarding livelihood “unreasonable”, especially a demand from the youth to hire 200 people...SAG admits that “no formal livelihood restoration plan was established...AngloGold asserted in August 2016 that a grievance mechanism was operational on site and that no complaint had been submitted relating to the resettlement of Area One. The mining company stated that the mechanism had been effectively put in place and meetings had been organized to address any concern voiced by affected persons.

 

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