The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday refuted reports that it had issued permits to the Canadian-owned Aurora Gold Mines (AGM) to begin underground mining, saying that a permit was issued for data collection works and testing of the site.
“They were given a permit recently, but that permit is not for mining, it to conduct testing,” EPA Executive Director Dr Vincent Adams said yesterday.
The Department of Public Information on Thursday quoted Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman as announcing on a tour of AGM’s Region Seven operations with a visiting South African delegation that AGM was given its licence to mine. “I am happy the government was able to issue the final permits for the underground mining…last week the EPA issued that,” the DPI quoted Trotman as saying.
