Chinese Company Sinohydro Group Limited has started clearing a path into the Atewa Forest reserve to conduct due diligence assessment into prospects of bauxite deposits in the Forest.

The due diligence, when completed, will help the company carry out full-scale mining in the forest.

This is despite the protests against the mining activity by the residents in the area.

According to Accra-based Starr FM, the investors were expected to visit the forest on Thursday but the contractor clearing the vegetation to create a path into the forest reserve could not complete the work on time.

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Ghana has signed a Controversial MOU with  Sinohydro Group Limited, to “provide US$2 billion of infrastructure including roads, bridges, interchanges, hospitals, housing, rural electrification, in exchange for Ghana’s refined bauxite to be mined in the Atewa and Nyinahin Forest Reserves”.

Many stakeholders have kicked against the decision. These include Environmental Protection Groups, the Minority in Parliament and some financial analysts. Most of them describe the deal as a bad one.

Meanwhile, the Minority wrote to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to seek its verdict on the matter.

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According to the Minority Leader in Parliament Haruna Iddrisu, their side considers the deal to be a loan, hence their letter to the IMF.

The letter was to ask the IMF whether the $2 billion Chinese deal agreed by the government in exchange for bauxite will add to the country’s debt burden

“It is our strong belief that this Sinohydro deal is a loan which is coming to add to the debt stock and we are concerned about the burden of additional borrowing cost on the over-burdened taxpayer,” Iddrisu said.