We’re adding value to our mineral resources — Jinapor
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, has said the government had put in measures to ensure the country added value to its mineral resources to ensure more revenue generation.
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He mentioned the establishment of a 400kg gold refinery to refine gold produced in the country through a public private partnership.
“We are working to secure a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Certification,” the minister said.
“The Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), which we established in 2018 and 2019, respectively, have also been working to promote and develop integrated aluminium and iron and steel industries, from exploration, through refining, to downstream production.
“And work is far advanced for the commencement of the construction of a $450million manganese refinery in Ghana.
“We cannot transform our economies, if we continue to dig and ship.
That is why since assuming office in 2017, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has been working to ensure that we add value to our mineral resources, Mr Jinapor added.
Conference
The minister was speaking at the African Prosperity Dialogues (APN) conference on the theme: “Delivering prosperity in Africa: Produce, add value and trade.”
The third high-level session set the context for a panel discussion on “Getting on the global value chain of Africa’s natural resources”.
The panel included the Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh; the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman of Oilserv Group, Emeka Okwuosa; the President, South African Mining Development Association, Brigette Radebe, and the CEO of Cybele Energy Ltd, Beatrice Mensah-Tayui.
The rest were CEO of Tetracore, Olakunle Williams, and the CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng.
It was moderated by lawyer and journalist, Egbert Faibille Jr, who is also the CEO of the Petroleum Commission.
The dialogue series, which is an initiative of the Africa Prosperity Network (APN), seeks to bring together Africa’s political and business leaders to discuss and also collaborate to implement the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
Value addition
The minister underscored the importance of value addition to successful and responsible natural resources exploitation.
He said the pre-colonial practice of “digging and shipping” mineral resources should make way for addition of value to minerals to enhance revenue generation for economic transformation.
Mr Jinapor, therefore, urged African countries to follow the blueprint being implemented by Ghana in the production of lithium, other green minerals and the traditional minerals.
He said value addition and local participation were two fundamental principles in the extraction of more mineral resources to make the extractive sector the bedrock for an economic turnaround.
To encourage the other countries to chart the same path as Ghana, the minister outlined some policy interventions made by the government which, he said, were already bearing fruits.
Policy on listing
On local participation, Mr Jinapor said the importance of citizens benefiting directly from the resources in their countries could not be overemphasised, adding that the government owed the citizens a duty to facilitate their participation in the exploitation of their own resource.
Mr Jinapor further disclosed that the government was currently working on a policy with Ghana Chamber of Mines that would compel large-scale mining companies to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange to create a platform for Ghanaian ownership of the companies through acquisition of shares.
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“To derive optimal benefit from our natural resources, African peoples must participate fully across the entire value chain of the industry.
Our peoples must have equity in the companies involved in the exploration, production, and processing of our mineral resources,” the lands and natural resources minister stated.
The minister said Ghana had also enacted the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431) to promote local content in the mining industry.
“Pursuant to this law, we have increased the items on the Local Procurement List of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians from 29 to 50, retaining here in our country about $3 billion annually, which would have otherwise been exported.
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The second edition of the Africa Prosperity Dialogues series kicked off on Thursday, January 25, this year and ended last Saturday.