De Beers sitting on largest diamond inventory since 2008, FT reports
The diamond giant has faced multiple headwinds in recent years.
Cassius Mining (ASX: CMD) has taken the Ghanaian government to court for alleged “breach of contracts” that resulted in the company losing its gold project. In its claim, Cassius is seeking $277 million (A$443 million) in damages from the African nation.
In a press release dated Dec. 23, the Australian miner said the claim, witness statements and independent expert reports have all been filed at the London Court for International Arbitration.
The claim amount, it added, represents the “lost profits and damages for the loss of opportunity to develop, establish and benefit from a producing gold mine in its licensed area.”
The company’s Gbane project in northeastern Ghana comprises a large-scale prospecting licence covering a total area of 13.8 km2. It is situated within the Talensi district of the Upper East region, next to the currently producing Shaanxi gold mine.
Cassius also had a long-running dispute with Shaanxi, alleging that the Chinese mining company operating the mine had dug hundreds of metres underground into its concession and plundered tens of millions of dollars in gold from its veins, according to investigations by the Sydney Morning Herald and a local journalist.
Shaanxi — now known as Earl International — had also been accused of taking extreme measures to keep small-scale miners off their mine site in northern Ghana, including the release of toxic gas that once killed 16 people. Since 2013, it is alleged that more than 60 miners have been killed in Shaanxi’s mines.
According to Cassius, Ghana did nothing about these incidents nor the alleged encroachment of its mining concessions by Shaanxi. Instead, it shut down Cassius’ project in 2019 for what it calls “constitutional non-compliance”.
“Ghana’s actions, including its failure to renew Cassius’s prospecting licence, has resulted in Cassius being deprived of the entire value and profits of its gold project in Ghana,” Cassius stated in its press release.
To support its claim, the company relied on leading quantum experts AMC Consultants in Perth, Western Australia, and Secretariat in Washington DC. The Ghanaian government has yet to file documents to the tribunal, according to Cassius.
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