Ghana opens its first gold refinery to achieve extra worth from the useful resource
Ghana, Africa’s largest gold producer, has inaugurated its first refinery to extract higher worth from its pure sources in line with experiences from Bloomberg.
The Royal Ghana Gold Refinery is ready to refine 400 kilograms of gold each day, primarily sourcing its uncooked materials from artisanal and small-scale mines, which formally contribute to one-third of Ghana’s annual output of roughly 4 million ounces.
{Bank} of Ghana Governor Ernest Addison acknowledged that the refinery would play a big position in lowering gold smuggling, a longstanding problem for the nation, by offering a prepared marketplace for artisanal and small-scale miners.
He mentioned, “This refinery will play an essential position in lowering gold smuggling which has been a serious problem for the nation over time by offering a prepared marketplace for artisanal and small-scale miners. This gold refinery can mitigate the inducement for smuggling and assist promote transparency and accountability in gold buying and selling,”
The nation’s finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adam additionally lamented that close to zero worth addition to the nation’s gold regardless of it being among the many prime 10 greatest gold producers on the planet.
He mentioned, “Our failure to efficiently guarantee worth addition throughout all the useful resource chain has meant that we’ve got been unable to correctly harness the advantages of being among the many prime 10 gold producers on the planet,”
House owners of the plant
The refinery is majorly owned by Rosy Royal Minerals Ltd. of India which holds an 80% possession stake whereas the remaining 20% is owned by the {Bank} of Ghana.
This refinery enhances different initiatives aimed toward formalizing Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector.
As a part of a program to boost its overseas change reserves and counter a weakening forex, the central {bank} has been buying gold from small miners.
This strategy is being emulated or thought-about by different African nations, together with Uganda and Madagascar.
What you need to know
- The historical past of gold mining in present-day Ghana, previously often known as the Gold Coast throughout British colonial rule, spans centuries.
- In 2023, the nation produced 4 million ounces of the valuable metallic representing a rise of 8.3% in line with knowledge from the nation’s authorities.
- The transfer to start out native processing of the valuable metallic aligns with a broader effort throughout Africa so as to add worth to pure sources earlier than exporting them, thereby reaching higher {economic} advantages.
- Throughout completely different industries from stable minerals to agro produce like cocoa, African nations are expending higher sources in the direction of native worth along with its pure sources.
