Ghana’s newly constructed Gold refinery, Royal Gold Ghana, is scheduled for inauguration in August this year.
The refinery is fitted with vital facilities including Control room, Scanner, the Refinery section, which hosts the Electrolysis machine, the Moulding room and the Assay laboratory.
It is a joint venture project between the government, which holds 20 per cent shares, and private gold dealing company, Rosy Royals Minerals Limited, which owns the remaining shares.
Inspecting the project yesterday in Accra, Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, said the refinery would refine between 300 and 500 kilogrammes of gold per day through chemical and electrical methods.
He noted that a test run of the refinery with the processing of raw gold yielded 99.9 per cent quality, saying “the result I must say are of very good standards similar to that found in South Africa.”
Mr Duker said the refinery, which would be inaugurated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was in accordance with government’s agenda to add value to the various minerals produced in Ghana.
“As we have a refinery here in Ghana, the value addition goal of the President will be met and this tells you that we are going to expand the base. We are going to add more value and more importantly, Gold would not be exported in the raw form,” he stated.
Mr Duker assured that government would ensure that all the needed processes and plans were instituted to make the refinery worth the investment for it to generate the expected returns.
Although currently being operated by foreign nationals, the Deputy Minister said the refinery would soon create more jobs for Ghanaians through knowledge sharing.
He asked the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) to insist on the protocol of traceability and strict compliance to the Minamata Convention on Mercury in the process of utilising the refinery.
The Managing Director of PMMC, Nana Akwasi Awuah, commended government for the reduction of the three per cent withholding tax on Gold exports to 1.5 per cent.
This, he said, had resulted in an increment in production and profit since the beginning of the year.
“In December 2021, we did less than 200 kilogrammes of Gold, but when the reduction took effect in January this year that figure shot up to over 100 per cent where we did over 400kilogrammes which means that it is having a positive impact” Nana Awuah stated.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS
