TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Construction activities at Vancouver-based miner True Gold’s Karma gold project, in Burkina Faso, were again temporarily suspended on Wednesday, after an impromptu protest damaged certain property and assets. 

Company spokesperson Blaine Monaghan told Mining Weekly Online that several hundred members thought to be from two surrounding communities had marched on the mine and threatened employees, which prompted management to suspend operations and evacuate the property in the interest of employee safety and project security.

True Gold had last month reported that a "disturbance" in a local community had resulted in the company temporarily halting part of the construction activities at its $132-million Karma project. Construction activities remained impeded while the communities and authorities were ironing out issues.

At the heart of the problem appeared to be local concerns about potential damage to a mosque and other buildings in the neighbouring town of Ramatoulaye, and perceived negative effects the Rambo West openpit mine could have on dust, noise and groundwater quality in the community.

“We’ve been meeting with the communities since December, making presentations to demonstrate how we could mitigate any of those potential negative impacts and the benefits of mining to their communities,” Monaghan explained, noting that the company was at this stage uncertain as to who was responsible for organising Wednesday’s demonstration.

“It’s important to note that during the several years that we were engaged in acquiring the Karma mine permits, we have had over 100 stakeholder meetings in about 15 communities within the permit area and we would not have been able to receive these permits without stakeholder approval,” he added.

Monaghan noted that True Gold had been “very surprised” by the developments.

“We’re trying to resolve them as fast as we can. We understand that you cannot build a mine without community support and we are redoubling our efforts to get that support and it is top-of-mind for us.”

The company remained in contact with the relevant authorities and would continue to monitor the situation.

True Gold was currently assessing the significance and potential impacts to the project schedule. The company planned to declare commercial production at the project at the end of 2015.