{"id":219869,"date":"2018-05-11T03:05:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T07:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/?p=219869"},"modified":"2019-02-10T09:30:34","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T14:30:34","slug":"midrocs-gold-mining-license-in-shakiso-southern-ethiopia-canceled-after-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/219869","title":{"rendered":"MIDROC’s gold mining license in Shakiso, southern Ethiopia canceled after protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has suspended a gold mining firm\u2019s license after weeks of protests in a town near the mine by local people who accuse the company of polluting their source of water and the atmosphere, a government official said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ministry suspended the license in response to the demands of the people,\u201d Bacha Faji, a spokesman for Ethiopia\u2019s Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas, told state-affiliated television Fana.<\/p>\n

Owned by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, MIDROC Gold Mine Plc has operated the open-cast mine in Guji zone of the Oromia region for more than two decades.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s decision to renew the mining license for MIDROC\u2019s Legadembi mine last month led to two weeks of protests by Guji zone residents who accuse the company of polluting the environment and the Legadembi River and allege that the pollution is linked to a range of illnesses.<\/p>\n

The company did not respond to requests for comment and has not commented on the matter in the past. <\/p>\n

The mining firm\u2019s owner, Amoudi, was among dozens of Saudi royals and top businessmen detained last year in an anti-corruption drive and is believed to be still held in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

According to MIDROC\u2019s website, the gold mine has an average annual production of 4.5 tonnes.<\/p>\n

Bacha said an independent body has been formed and had begun an impact assessment study of MIDROC\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n

It was not clear how long the assessment would take. Bacha said the final decision will depend on the outcome of the study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Reuters) – Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has suspended a gold mining firm\u2019s license after weeks of protests in a town near the mine by local people who accuse the company of polluting their source of water and the atmosphere, a government official said. \u201cThe ministry suspended the license in response to the demands of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/9D880561-8D1D-43B0-990F-6888620AD82F_cx4_cy0_cw89_w1023_r1_s.jpg?fit=1023%2C575&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-Vch","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219872,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219869\/revisions\/219872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}