Prestea Sankofa Gold races against time to complete new tailings facility

Prestea Sankofa Gold Limited is racing to complete a new tailings storage facility as the remaining capacity of its existing dam is expected to run out within the next three months, raising the stakes for the mining company to bring the replacement facility into operation before its current tailings infrastructure is decommissioned.

Managing Director of Sankofa Gold, Alhaji Ishaq Dauda, confirmed the mounting pressure on the company, saying the new facility is now about 80 per cent complete and the company is working around the clock to meet its revised completion target.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” Mr Dauda told this reporter during an inspection of the project.

The new tailing dam under contruction

He said the company had initially expected to complete the facility by the end of last month, but a combination of issues, including engagements with traditional authorities and heavier-than-anticipated rainfall, had affected the schedule.

The company is now targeting completion by the end of October, although Mr Dauda said commissioning could ultimately take place by December after all the necessary regulatory requirements have been satisfied.

“We are working day and night,” he said, adding that tower lights had been installed to allow construction activities to continue beyond normal working hours. The urgency stems from the limited remaining capacity of the existing tailings dam. According to the company’s Head of Safety and Health, Francis Boakye Yiadom, the facility currently being used by Sankofa Gold has only about three months of capacity left for tailings deposition.

Tailings are the waste materials generated during the processing of ore, and their safe storage is a critical component of mining operations because of the potential environmental and public-health consequences of poor management.

Mr Boakye Yiadom said the replacement facility had been designed with extensive environmental safeguards and was being constructed in accordance with requirements set by the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The new facility, he explained, stretches for almost one kilometre and incorporates engineered embankments and a specially designed basin for tailings deposition.

The project has also required the construction of a concrete culvert to divert and protect a stream running through the basin area.

An environmental impact assessment was undertaken before construction, with the socio-economic implications for communities in the area also considered.

The facility is being developed in stages, with the current construction constituting the first stage of a planned expansion that could ultimately provide a tailings storage lifespan of not less than 18 years, according to Mr Boakye Yiadom.

He said the project includes a geomembrane liner and groundwater monitoring infrastructure designed to prevent contamination and protect underground water resources.

The design and construction are being undertaken under regulatory supervision, with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s Golden Research Institute engaged as a consultant on the project, while the design was subjected to approval by the Minerals Commission and other relevant authorities.

Construction commenced in May 2025 after the company obtained the required permits.

But the project has faced delays. Mr Dauda said the company had originally been advised that construction could be completed in about six months. However, additional requirements imposed by regulators, including the construction of a culvert extending about one kilometre to protect a tributary, added to the timeline.

He also blamed unusually heavy rainfall for slowing construction. “The amount of rain we anticipated this year was more than that,” he said, noting that flooding in parts of the area had affected the project.

For Sankofa Gold, the consequences of missing the deadline extend beyond the construction schedule. Mr Dauda said the company had previously experienced a prolonged shutdown, with operations halted for close to nine months.

He warned that failure to complete the new facility before the existing one reaches its limit could force another interruption to operations. “We have had a bit of challenges because close to about nine months, we’ve not been producing and you have to be paying salaries and other commitments,” he said.

The completion of the new facility, he added, would enable Sankofa Gold to operate closer to its full production potential, rather than having to manage output around the limitations of the existing tailings infrastructure. The company is, therefore, working ahead on its permitting requirements to ensure that regulatory approvals do not become another bottleneck once physical construction is completed.

That position was echoed by Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson, who said the tailings facility was fundamental to the continued operation of the mine.

According to Mr Nelson, mining operations cannot continue without adequate tailings storage capacity, making the timely completion of Sankofa Gold’s new facility critical to the company and the wider regional economy.

He said a failure to complete the project could result in regulatory intervention, including a possible directive from the Minerals Commission to suspend mining operations.

“If this is not done, the Minerals Commission can easily ask them to stop operations,” the Minister said.

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