Abstract:A critical issue confronting the mining industry and communities in Ghana is compensation for loss of land rights in mining activities. The 1992 Constitution and the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) both require compensation for the expropriated to be fair, adequate and promptly paid. However, fairness, adequacy and promptness are normative value judgments predicated on stakeholders' perceptions. This makes controversies over compensation issues inevitable and in mining communities these are rife because of increased competition between mines and communities for land and the legal provision that the payment of compensation rests with mining companies negotiating with the expropriated. Using Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd at Ahafo, we analyzed data from a sample of 120 stakeholders in four mining communities which revealed a wide divergence between communities' perceptions and mining company compensation practices, and weak enforcement of mining legislation. Communities were also not well resourced to negotiate for compensation with the transnational corporation. Also, we argue that the principles applied in compensation assessment as provided by law, especially in the case of common resources, contribute to unfairness and inadequacy in compensation for the expropriated. We conclude that this imbalance has negative implications for community-mining company relations and threatens sustainable mining operations. We therefore recommend the rigorous enforcement of legislation, introduction of appropriate governmental and mining company initiatives in building capacities of communities for improved negotiations for compensation, legal recognition of common resources 2 John Tiah Bugri and Samuel Kumi as valuable community assets for compensation, the application of the investment approach to compensation valuation and improved CSR packages by mines as means of bridging the gap between communities' perceptions and compensation practices and ensuring improved company-community relations in the mining industry.

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Soil erosion studies around houses in four communities in Ghana were carried out from August to November, 2010. Thirty houses were selected from each of the four communities for the study. Measurements of slope and the depth of exposed foundation of houses were done with the help of a string and a tape measure. Data were also obtained through questionnaire and interview of house owners. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to measure some relationships among data. In the selection of site for building a house, higher percentage of the house owners considered no factor. The major cleaning activity around the surrounding of houses was noted to be sweeping with a broom. All the houses in the communities had their foundations exposed, 57% - 93% of the houses had exposed foundations up to a level within 51 - 100 cm which was classified as “Severely Exposed”. The extent of building foundation exposed by soil erosion was found to be positively correlated with the age of building and the slope of the land. Most of the respondents controlled soil erosion by blocking water ways with materials such as, sand heaps, stones and sacks filled with soil. Only 10% of the respondents from one of the communities planted grasses around their houses to control soil erosion. Communities need to be educated to plant grasses around their houses to beautify the surroundings and to control soil erosion

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