The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF) is assessing businesses across the mining value chain for potential investment in a bid to increase local participation and retain more value from the country’s mineral resources.
MIIF’s radar covers manufacturers and suppliers whose goods and services support mining operations, including producers of grinding media and other mill consumables.
Grinding media are metal balls and other specialised materials used in mills to crush and grind mineral-bearing ore during mineral processing.
This came to light when the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MIIF, Justina Nelson, led a delegation to steel products manufacturer, B5 Plus Limited, last Wednesday to examine the company’s production capacity, operations, regulatory compliance and environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.
The delegation toured B5 Plus’s steel fabrication, melting, rolling, and grinding media lines, as well as aluminium and engineering plants at Larkpleku in the Ningo-Prampram District.
The delegation also interacted with the company’s management at its head office at Kpone.
The visit formed part of the Fund’s assessment of potential investment opportunities within the mining supply chain and its broader efforts to determine how mineral revenues could be strategically deployed to strengthen businesses supporting the sector.
The engagement also enabled MIIF to examine the opportunities and challenges confronting local manufacturers providing support to the mining industry and identify possible areas for strategic collaboration.
The exercise is in line with the government’s local content and local participation policy and the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431), which seek to deepen Ghanaian participation in the mining industry.
Established under the Minerals Income Investment Fund Act, 2018 (Act 978), as amended by the Minerals Income Investment Fund (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1137), MIIF manages and invests minerals income accruing to the Republic, with a mandate to maximise the long-term value of Ghana’s mineral wealth.
Greater value
Mrs Nelson said MIIF was focused on helping Ghana capture greater value from its natural resources by supporting local participation, investment and businesses operating along the mining value chain.
She explained that the Fund’s mandate went beyond investing directly in mines and quarries to supporting businesses that provided goods and services to the sector.
“Government has made local content a priority as well as increasing Ghanaian participation in the mining value chain.
MIIF’s role is to explore how mineral revenues can be strategically deployed to support this objective by strengthening local businesses, expanding productive capacity and creating opportunities for greater value retention within Ghana,” she said.
“Our mandate is very broad. MIIF’s investment is not just in the mines, the quarries or the sand-winning.
Our investment is also to look at the mining value chain,” she added.
The engagement comes against the background of the significant expenditure by mining companies on goods and services required for their operations, including inputs used in mineral processing.
Mrs Nelson cited data from the Ghana Chamber of Mines, indicating that mining companies spent approximately $95.5 million on grinding media in 2024, out of total mining procurement of about $2.45 billion.
The MIIF CEO explained that the figures point to a significant market for local manufacturers and raise questions about the extent to which Ghanaian businesses could capture a larger share of expenditure within the mining industry.
Mrs Nelson stressed that the Fund’s assessment of businesses within the supply chain was, therefore, expected to help identify companies with the capacity to meet industry demand and areas where strategic investment could expand local production.
The Group Chairman of B5 Group, Mukesh V. Thakwani, said the company currently had the capacity to produce about 130,000 tonnes of grinding media annually, against an estimated domestic demand of about 70,000 tonnes.
He said the production capacity created room for the company to supply the domestic market and to other West African markets.
Mr Thakwani called for stronger government support for local manufacturing, including effective implementation of local content measures, access to industrial land, support for scrap-metal recycling and policies that encouraged the use of locally manufactured products.
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