Ghana launched a new gold refinery on Thursday, the first in West Africa, with the aim of extracting greater value from the country’s natural resource and reinforcing its position as the leading gold producer in Africa.
The Royal Ghana Gold Refinery is poised to be just the second in Africa to attain the highly esteemed London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Good Delivery Bar Certification.
The state-of-the-art refinery, located in Accra, was commissioned on Thursday by Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who hailed it as a “historic achievement towards economic transformation and industrialisation.”
The refinery, established in collaboration with the Bank of Ghana and Rosy Royal Minerals Limited, can process as much as 400 kilograms of gold per day.
This translates to a yearly capability of 120 tons, enough to handle all of the West African country’s gold production, which usually averages about four million ounces per year.
At present, Ghana’s gold is exported without being processed, resulting in the country missing out on substantial revenue that could be obtained through local refining.
Finance Minister Mohammed Amin Adam stressed that even though gold accounts for about 96 per cent of the country’s mineral exports, the commodity’s unrefined nature restricts the country’s revenue prospects.
“The new refinery opens many doors for economic transformation by creating jobs that will have a multiplying effect on the local economy,” he said.
Ghana is Africa’s top gold producer, with gold making up over half of its exports. In the first half of 2024, gold exports surged due to higher global prices and increased production, reaching $5bn, or 54% of total exports. Illegal mining remains a major issue for the country, contributing to environmental degradation and water pollution.