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Exton to drag government to court over withdrawal of exploration permit

The Akufo-Addo administration on Monday cancelled the bauxite mining lease awarded to the company, citing several irregularities in the award of the contract.

The Akufo-Addo administration on Monday cancelled the bauxite mining lease awarded to the company.

A statement from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources said Exton Cubic failed to officially accept the offer given them in writing.

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The statement also cited several irregularities in the award of the contract to Exton Cubic, a company Mr Ibrahim Mahama has links with.

“Section 13, subsection 6 indicates an approved application shall lapse if the applicant fails to accept the offer in a form stated in subsection 4," the statement said.

“There is no record of an acceptance of the offer of the mining lease in writing by the company as mandatorily prescribed by section 13, subsection 4 of the act,” the statement added.

The statement further said the failure of Exton Cubic to obtain an “environmental permit, operations permit as well as various statutory infractions leading to the purported grant of the three mining leases to the company render the purported leases invalid and of no effect.”

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“Please be informed in the event that you have not already been so advised that the company has no valid mining rights in the designated areas.The company is further advised to deists from entering the land under reference to prevent any further breaches."

But the Public Relations Officer of Exton Cubic, Sammy Gyamfi, said that, his outfit was currently “studying the letters received from government” before “seeking redress by taking the necessary legal steps.”“We will take the appropriate legal steps to seek redress… These are technical and legal issues which our lawyers will go through,” he stated. Mr. Gyamfi further indicated that, government’s claims in the letters issued to Exton Cubic were false, saying “in the coming days, we will delve into the details of the two letters and we will demonstrate to you that the facts and complaints contained in those government letters are totally false. The claims are totally untenable,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.He further indicated that Exton Cubic had not breached the law as far as the exploration of bauxite was concerned.

“We have not done anything untoward. We are pursuing our objective of ensuring that Nyinahen Bauxite is exploited for the benefit of Ghanaians,” he added.

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