Business News of Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2018-12-05
Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Kwaku Asomah–Cheremeh
The total gold assayed by government at the Precious Minerals Marketing Company Limited (PMMC) from January to June this year is about 111,526 Kilos valued over $2.1 billion.
The Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Kwaku Asomah–Cheremeh said this includes gold in transit from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo of about 4,877 kilos valued at $159 million.
He told journalists when he took his turn at the Meet The Press series Tuesday that “plans are far advanced to bring other countries on board.”
To be able to document all gold exports in the country and apply the necessary taxation in enhancing government revenue, a directive was issued in 2016 that made PMMC the sole assayer of gold in the country.
The new Assay regime was established pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Minerals and Mining (General Regulation) of 2012.
In fulfilling the directive, a modern laboratory building was put up using a World Bank Grant, facilitated by the Minerals Commission and the Ministry in 2016.
This has brought on board both Licensed Gold Exporters (LGE) and Large Scale Mining Companies to assay their produce at the Assay Center at the Kotoka International Airport.
Mr Asomah–Cheremeh explained that the PMMC takes every bar of gold through assay analysis and pre-shipment inspection before export.
“By so doing the appropriate taxes and royalties are applied and government revenue collection has been greatly enhanced,” he said.
Regarding the country’s rough diamond trading, he said, “the total export for 2017 stood at 86,925 carats valued at nearly $3.0 million.
“The total exports for 2018 is estimated at 61,750 carats at an expected value of $2.0 million. As of June 2018, nearly 40,000 carats have been exported at the value of almost $1.2 million.”
According to the Lands minister, the Ministry will continue to implement strategies to increase local content participation in the mining industry leading to the ultimate goal where all inputs required by the mining companies would be procured locally.