Heath Goldfields has paid greater than GHF139 million to staff on the Bogoso Prestea mine since taking up operations in an effort to clear unpaid salaries and stabilize the mine.
The corporate’s common supervisor, Patrick Appiah-Mensah, mentioned the fee is a part of a deliberate effort to revive dignity to staff, rebuild belief and rework industrial relations after years of uncertainty.
He mentioned Mr Heath took over management of the mine on the finish of 2024 underneath troublesome circumstances and inherited practically $87 million in debt from earlier operator Future International Sources (FGR).
These embody greater than $25 million in unpaid staff, roughly $25 million in unpaid electrical energy payments, and extra obligations to state companies comparable to SSNIT, GRA, and GRIDCo.
By the point the corporate took over, operations had ceased and the location had been inactive for practically two years.
“Since assuming duty, we now have prioritized the employees,” Appiah-Mensah mentioned, noting that the GH¢139 million paid thus far went on to resolving wage arrears and supporting workers who had not been paid for months.
He added that the funds will assist ease the monetary strain on affected households and are central to rebuilding morale on the mine, whereas the corporate continues to restructure its remaining obligations by collaboration with commerce unions and different stakeholders.
Past the monetary burden, Heath-Goldfields says they’ve additionally inherited important technological challenges. The underground mine was fully flooded after an influence outage shut down the pumping system underneath the earlier administration. The corporate is presently conducting steady dewatering at a charge of roughly 10 million liters per day, and the mine is predicted to be totally drained by August 2026.
Appiah-Mensah argues that the size of those inherited challenges is usually ignored in public discussions, which are likely to concentrate on present operational delays with out contemplating the circumstances underneath which firms took over.
He additionally cited issues in regards to the firm’s capability to handle its property, saying the mining lease granted in December 2024 adopted what he described as a radical technical and monetary evaluate.
He mentioned Heath had already invested greater than $52 million within the mine and secured an extra $65 million financing facility from world commodity dealer Trafigura to help its ongoing rehabilitation and operations.
The corporate additional rejected claims associated to the so-called “$800 firm”, explaining that the registered capital doesn’t replicate the scale of the enterprise funding.
On the authorized entrance, Appiah Mensah pointed to a November 2025 judgment by the Supreme Courtroom of Ghana that upheld the validity of the lease task after a problem by the earlier administration.
Heath Goldfields insists it operates in full compliance with Ghana’s mining legal guidelines, continues to carry a sound allow issued in December 2025, and is working to renew operations and deal with each the monetary and technical setbacks on the Bogoso Prestea mine.
