Ernest’s passion for engineering has been with him since childhood. “My father tells me I was one of those kids who took the radio apart to find out how there could be a voice coming from it,” he laughs. “I had a lot of positive influence from my dad. He was a teacher and gave me a lot of home tutoring that helped me to become one of the top performing students in my O- and A-levels. I considered going into medicine, from a purely humanitarian perspective, because I saw how many people suffer where I grew up. I wanted to do something that would support life.”
“But my passion was for civil engineering, and this is really a humanitarian pursuit as well. Without infrastructure, people can’t access all the critical things that make life possible – like safe drinking water and transport to get to work – so I did my first degree in Civil Engineering, and majored in geotechnical, highway and transportation, water resources, environmental and structural engineering because I was so passionate about the power of what engineering could achieve.”
Ernest went on to work for a range of companies including Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, Centamin gold mines among others, leveraging his diverse skills. He also earned his MSc. in Water Resources Engineering and Management from the University of Stuttgart, Germany, early in his career. Before specialising in mining, Ernest worked as a Project Manager with CARE International, Ghana. “My experience at CARE really touched my heart, because I worked in extremely remote parts of Ghana on a water resources project where I would see people drinking water that was brown and muddy. I had a great sense of satisfaction working on a project that created value and access to safe drinking water for these very remote communities.”
Since Ernest entered the mining sector in 2007, he hasn’t looked back. “While I was working on the mines, I was struck by the social and environmental aspects of each project,” Ernest says. “Laws and regulations relating to these issues were being redeveloped in Ghana at the time, and I had the opportunity to work with regulatory bodies to help ensure that our designs and process plans were aligned.” Ernest worked a lot in waste management, civil and processing infrastructure, closure planning and water resource management on the mines as well, helping to align these with developing environmental best practices.
Ernest has really been a pioneer in driving environmental best practice in mining in Ghana. His passion for helping clients to achieve their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals is clear, and he’s proud of the influence he’s had in shaping the approach to these critical issues in Ghana.
He joined Golder/WSP in June 2021 to oversee the company’s West Africa business operations, providing expert support to clients, especially in the mining sector. Ernest and his team are working with Newmont on the Ahafo North Project – a green fields expansion of the US-based mining company’s gold mining footprint in Ghana. Newmont expects the Ahafo North project to create 1,800 construction jobs and more than 550 jobs once the mine enters production, which illustrates Ernest’s point about the impact mining can have on empowering communities. “Our team is doing the ESIA updates and the geotechnical ground investigations for this project. We have a great relationship with this client and are currently doing the technical audits on their Ahafo South Tailings dam as well,” Ernest says.
Ernest and his team are also working with Tietto Minerals on developing the company’s Abujar Gold Mine Project in Côte d’Ivoire. “This project is deep into the engineering design phase,” he says. “We’re also providing construction quality assurance (CQA) for the new mine on its tailing storage facility (TSF) as well as for their water diversion dam (WDD). We have been appointed as the engineer of record for this project, which is very exciting for us.”
On the environmental side, Ernest and his team are working with Genser Energy to champion three ESIAs for a natural gas pipeline expansion in Ghana. “We’ve carried out the geotechnical site investigations for a new gas plant and a 105km gas pipeline extension. We’ve enjoyed developing our partnership with Genser,” he says. “Our work with this client has grown steadily over the years - we initially started off with a pilot project, but since then Genser has seen the added value we bring to them through the quality of local skills together with our access to an international network of experts providing an unparalleled level of service in our field.”
“I derive real satisfaction from being a part of something that adds positively to humanity,” Ernest says. “I was really attracted to Golder/WSP’s values because they aligned so closely with mine. I am looking forward to enabling environments where communities can grow and thrive with this wealth of professional global experts working closely with our team.”
Ernest and his team are also focused on talent development, with a number of roles on offer in Ghana to work on these and many more exciting projects.
Join the team
WSP in Africa is recruiting. If you’re looking for your next role and want to join a collaborative team of experts that thrives on challenge and unconventional thinking, then check out the jobs available on our WSP in Africa careers page.
