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Goldfields Ghana Limited (Tarkwa Mine) has branched into the fishing industry with an initial projection of producing 21 metric tonnes of fish, mainly tilapia, for the local market within the next six months. The catch is expected to quadruple to more than 80 metric tonnes by the next half year. Proceeds from the sale of the fish are intended to feed the $2 million community development fund which was established in 2002 to undertake development projects in the communities within which the company operates. So far, the company has invested about $100,000 in the fishing project, which is being undertaken in collaboration with the Water Research Institute (WRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The General Manager of Goldfields Ghana Limited (Tarkwa Mine), Mr Peet van Schalkwyk, made this known during an interaction with a group of journalists from Accra who undertook a tour of the mine in Tarkwa last Friday. The fish project is in line with the company�s strategy to move away from alternative livelihood programmes to community investment ones which will eventually be transferred to the communities after the mine has been closed down. The company is using a 21-acre man-made lake created by water pumped out of the mine underground and whose safety has been guaranteed by the WRI. Other projects being undertaken by the company include a poultry farm, a piggery, as well as an oil palm plantation. Mr Schalkwyk said Goldfields had invested $1.15 billion in its operations in Ghana and paid about $174 million (excluding indirect tax) to the government per royalties over the past 15 years. The Community and Public Relations Manager of the company, Dr Steve Yaw Yirenkyi, said when Goldfields came to Ghana in 1993, there were about 20,000 residents within the concession who had to be moved. He said in response to that challenge, it resettled the people at New Atuabo, considered to be the biggest resettlement project in West Africa. The company prides itself with the claim that the New Atuabo resettlement project is one of the few pre-plan communities in the country, after the likes of Tema and Akosombo, with the provision of water, electricity, roads and other social amenities. Between its two mines at Tarkwa and Darmang, Goldfields Ghana Limited produces 800,000 ounces of gold per year. Earlier on Tuesday, the journalists had visited the Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) at Nsuta and Anglogold Ashanti (Iduapriem) Limited located near Tarkwa, where they had been taken through the operations and community development projects of the two companies.