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The Minister of lands and Natural Resources, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, has called on Chiefs not to release lands for illegal mining that would lead to environmental degradation and pollution of water bodies. He said as custodians of the land they should rise up and mobilize people to confront illegal mining in their areas as the use of chemicals including mercury should be a serious concern to all people. Alhaji Fuseini made the call at the official signing of the Newmont Akyem Development Foundation (NAKDeF) agreement between the Newmont Akyem mining projects, chiefs from the 10 accepted communities, the Birim North District Assembly and the trustees of the Foundation at Amanfrom settlement communities in the Birim North community. He commended Newmont for its support in the areas of health, education, and water and sanitation, security, safety and road rehabilitation adding that �mining should be catalyst for development in the affected communities�. He called for dialogue between the mining companies and the communities to solve all misunderstandings and to co-exist peacefully. The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong, appealed to the mining companies to cut down operational cost to avoid laying off of their workers because they would be involved in illegal mining. The general manager of the Newmont Akyem mining project, Mr. Kevin Moxham, said through the foundation agreement, resource and funding for the chosen development project would be set up and manage to the benefit of the communities He said the mining company would pay 1 percent of its three pre-tax profit and 1 dollar on every ounce of gold sold into the foundation for funding of the chosen developmental projects. The general manager said the foundation had accumulated 183,000 dollars since the company began commercial production eight months ago to finance some development projects in the 10 affected communities as part of its corporate social responsibility. A nine member board of trustees with Professor Emmanuel Gyimah Boadi of the Legon Center for Democratic Development (CDD) as chairman was appointed to manage the Foundation. The Minister for lands and natural resources Alhaji Inusah Fuseini has called on Chiefs not to release lands to illegal mining (Galamsey) activities to degrade environment and pollute water bodies. He said as custodians of the lands they should rise up and mobilize people to confront illegal mining activities in their areas as the use of chemicals including mercury should be a serious concern to all people. Alhaji Fuseini made the call at the official signing of the Newmont Akyem Development Foundation (NAKDeF) agreement between the Newmont Akyem mining projects, Chiefs from the 10 accepted communities, the Birim North District assembly and the trustees of the Foundation at Amanfrom settlement communities in the Birim North community. He said signing of foundation agreement underscores the important of the multilateral spirit corporation, partnership engagement and collaboration will ensure the mutual long term goals for all stakeholders could be active for sustainable development. The Minister for land and Natural resources commended Newmont for it support in the areas of Health, Education, and water and sanitation, security, safety and road rehabilitation adding that �mining should be catalyst for development in the affected communities�. He called for dialogue between the mining companies and the communities solve all misunderstanding to co-exist peacefully. The deputy Eastern Regional Minister Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong appealed to the mining companies to cut down operational cost to avoid laying off of their workers only to involve themselves in illegal mining their communities. The general manager of the Newmont Akyem mining project, Mr. Kevin Moxham said through the foundation agreement, resource and funding for the chosen development project would be set up and manage to the benefit of the communities He said the mining company would pay 1 percent of its three pre-tax profit and 1 dollar on every ounce of gold sold into the foundation for funding of the chosen developmental projects including Educational scholarship scheme, other human resource development , provision of infrastructure and socio-economic empowerment. The general manager said the foundation had accumulated 183,000 dollars since the company began commercial production 8 months ago to finance some development projects in the ten affected communities as part of its corporate social responsibility. A nine member board of trustees with Professor Emmanuel Gyimah Boadi of the Legon Center for Democratic Development (CDD) as chairman was appointed to manage the foundation.