In its response, the company has articulated a detailed explanation underscoring its unwavering commitment to corporate social responsibility at its mining locations. GACH Global emphasised its proactive measures in ensuring that all mining operations are conducted in an environmentally sustainable manner.
The company said it’s dedicated to minimizing ecological impact, and adhering to strict regulatory guidelines to protect local ecosystems. Furthermore, GACH Global reaffirms its engagement with local communities, aiming to foster economic development and create opportunities for residents while prioritizing environmental stewardship in all their initiatives.
Below is the full text of the GACH release…
We have read the latest publication by The Republic titled “the opaque mining deal gambling with Gambia’s future”. While we appreciate every sincere attempt to interrogate environmental governance on the Gambian coast, the piece does not meet the evidentiary standards of true investigative journalism. Speculation is repeatedly presented as fact, crucial context is omitted, and many of our own clarifications - formally supplied to the newspaper in March - are truncated or ignored. In the interest of accuracy and public understanding, we therefore provide a full rebuttal, point-by-point, preserving every substantive detail:
1. Licence award misrepresented
The article from the opening stated: “A licence was already issued to GACH Mining Company, a business affiliated to Abubakary Jawara, now a known supporter of the Gambian President.”
The wording is deliberately suggestive. By inserting “now a known supporter,” the authors imply a causal link between Mr Jawara’s alleged political affiliation today and a licence that was awarded then. The authors employed linguistic manoeuvres to stealthily plant in the minds of the readers some impropriety or favouritism in the acquisition of the licence. The authors intentionally omitted our submissions which presented clear evidence that at the time of granting this licence Mr Jawara was not acquainted with the president and the licence was acquired through a competitive process and at arm’s length.
2. Honorary Consul Appointment Distorted
The article also states that Mr. Jawara was appointed as Honorary Consul General of Gambia to Guangzhou China by the President, again to suggest a close relationship between the president and Mr. Jawara which they seek to imply paved the way for the mining license. The Authors again completely ignored the timeline of events: - -
Mr. Jawara had been honorary consul of the Gambia to China since 2006, under the Jammeh government. His 23rd August 2012 re-appointment letter was an administrative renewal issued by the Ministry of Foreign A airs, not a personal gesture from the President.
These dates are publicly available and easily verifiable. These dates were provided to the authors but were ignored for the article.
3. EU-funded study selectively quoted
The authors also misrepresented a funded by the EU by stating that the company had caused the loss of 50% to 70% of household income representing up to D10,000 a month. Thankfully the full report was linked in the article and the excerpt was taken from page 8 under the heading Batokunku Old Sand Mine. The full excerpt reads “The mine has had a greater impact on women than on men. At household level, the mine has cost between 50 and 70% of household income, representing up to 10,000 GMD per month. However, these losses depend on whether the household owned or rented the land. The loss of income led to migration between villages and districts, and for the families who remained, daily life became di icult in the absence of replacement income”. In fact this section goes into detail to describe the mines including even stating the part mined for by Gach for HMC “…has only two faces: piles of sand stacked one on top of the other and a pond for retaining/settling the water used to run the mine's machinery”. It further stated that “the southern part was exploited the longest and it was here that sand was extracted at the beginning of the 20th century”.
Even though this report mentioned the substantial mining of this area from the beginning of the 20th century, which is in the 1990s. By divorcing the quotation from its context, the newspaper converts a multi-decade, multi-operator impact into an indictment of GACH alone.
4. Agricultural land, mineralized zones and compensation.
Contrary to the implication that we raged crop land without redress, large sections of our concession lie within the Tourism Development Area (TDA)—a corridor zoned primarily for tourism infrastructure and known mineralized zones since the early 2000s. Where gardens overlapped active pits, we reached formal agreements—witnessed by the Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Sanyang and Batokunku—and provided compensation, including to gardeners who established plots after we had cleared scrubland for mining. We invited the authors to verify these facts directly with the VDCs; instead, it quoted unnamed “activists” and “community members” who “denied any knowledge of compensation.”
5. Audit-report language altered.
Probably the most unfortunate falsehood of the article is the section titled “Contract awarded based on favoritism” ,which as a malicious play on an audit finding which spoke about the “the high risk” that the license award was based on favoritism. Even the audit findings that the authors relied on did not make any conclusive findings but for some sinister purposes the authors chose to cut out “the high risk” part of the quote, thereby transforming a cautionary observation from the NAO into an alleged conclusion. Despite our elaborate response to this allegation, The Republican chose to ignore tangible evidence and proceeded make conclusions based on speculation and conjecture.
6. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme ignored
Our CSR record - arguably unrivalled among Gambian-owned extractive firms - was supplied in detail to The Republican. Not a single initiative made it to the article but the authors continued to push the narrative that the communities have not benefited from our operations. Some of these verifiable interventions include:
- The complete renovation of the Sanyang Central Mosque, construction of a Police Station and immigration post in Sanyang after it was burned during protests, the provision of a solar bore hole for the Sanyang Senior Secondary School, the donation of 1000 bags of cement for the Sanyang Garage rehabilitation, the construction of a waiting shed and vaccination room for the Sanyang Health Center.
“The Refurbishment of all boreholes at the Sanyang Women’s Garden, donation of a motorcycle to the Sanyang village messenger- Rehabilitation and Modernisation of the Kombo South District Tribunal, Annual Rehabilitation of the Road leading to the seaside, Rehabilitation of the Tujereng Mosque, Funding of the construction of the Village Meeting shed at Alkalo’s residence, Annual cash contribution as Corporate Social Responsibility to the Tujereng Community to aid in development efforts (2024 amount of D5,000,000), and among others.
