PMMC moves to attain international certification
The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) has said it is reviewing its certification regime to mandate licensed gold trading companies to file monthly returns of their trading activities, as part of moves to attain the London Bullion Market Association Certification (LBMA) by the end of next year.
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The attainment of the LBMA will ensure that Ghana’s gold is easily traceable and tradable on the international market.
The filing of the monthly returns by gold trading companies is aimed at tracking the origins of gold from the country to ensure that they are sourced responsibly before being traded on the international market.
The Managing Director of PMMC, Nana Akwasi Awuah, said this was part of the attainment of a full value chain responsible sourcing of gold.
“Those returns will tell us where they bought the gold from and who they sold the gold to, and it is part of a requirement for the renewal of their trading licences,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic.
“It is aimed at building a foundational block for a traceability system,” he added.
“The world has gone through a lot of phases concerning the precious minerals industry and gradually, we have gotten to a point where the global community that consumes gold insists on the origin or source of the gold, and if you are not able to tell, they will blacklist you”.
Gold Refinery
The Managing Director said PMMC is working to have international certification for Ghana’s gold and has, therefore, engaged a foreign investor in a joint venture arrangement to establish a gold refinery.
The facility, which he said has the capacity of refining 400 kilogrammes of gold per day at 99 per cent purity, is expected to change the narrative of the country as a raw material exporter to one of value addition.
The facility, he said, has the potential to create jobs and produce gold bars to feed the local jewellery industry.
“When you look at the value chain, you are looking at close to about 100 direct jobs. Meanwhile, for the indirect jobs, you are looking at close to around another 100 or 150 jobs,” he said.
Mr Awuah said the establishment of a monitoring and compliance task force by PMMC has helped to reduce the incidence of smuggling by some gold licence holders.
“The problem still exists but some progress has been achieved and we have been able to curb it much lower”, he said.
External offices
As part of reforms to reach out to the gold mining communities in the country, Nana Akwasi Awuah said PMMC is expanding by setting up external offices in Kumasi, Tarkwa and Borle in the Savanna Region.
According to him, this will allow the miners and traders to deal directly with the PMMC so that the precious metal is not smuggled.
“It will also assist women who mine in those communities”, he emphasised.