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Local gold refining firm, Gold Coast Refinery, is looking forward to playing an active role in the nation’s drive to improve earnings from gold and other mineral resources through value addition.
As Africa’s second biggest refinery only after Randgold Resources of South Africa, it can refine 180 tonnes of gold annually, with a daily capacity of 480 kilogrammes of gold refining.
The Administrative Manager of the company, Baba Anaba, told the Daily Graphic that the company was in a position to support the country’s efforts to add value to the mineral resource to reap maximum benefits for the country.
Ghana is currently the world’s biggest gold exporter, with the mineral resource contributing a significant portion of the national gross domestic product (GDP), which measures the monetary value of final goods and services.
The gold subsector's contribution to GDP growth of 1.1 per cent in 2022, for instance, translated into 35.5 per cent of the country's GDP outturn of 3.1 per cent for that year.
This suggested that the minerals sector was one of the main anchors of the country's economic growth in 2022. Gold alone averaged about seven per cent contribution to the GDP between 2013 and 2019.
Copper and silver are two of the by-products of gold, and any effort to refine the metal resource yields the added package of valuable sub-products for other useful production processes.
Mr Anaba said Gold Coast Refinery, a subsidiary of Euroget De-Invest, an Egyptian investment company, had so far exported to the Indian and Dubai markets and was in the process of completing relevant procedures to acquire the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) certification, which is considered the de facto international standard for gold and silver.
In 2022, Gold Coast Refinery Limited was certified to the Code of Practices of the Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC).
It thus became the first gold refinery in Ghana and West Africa to be certified to the Code of Practices of the RJC, an affiliate of the LBMA responsible for the jewellery and watches industry.
RJC is the leading standards authority in the global watch and jewellery industry and works with members worldwide to create a sustainable supply chain.
With that certification, Gold Coast Refinery became a certified member of the council for a three-year duration.
The certification is issued in accordance with standards and supporting documentation of the Code of Practices 2019, which is aligned with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Due Diligence Guidance and the UN Guiding Principles of Business and Human Rights.
Gold Coast Refinery was commissioned in 2016 by the then President, John Dramani Mahama, and has since been regarded as West Africa’s biggest gold refinery.
So far, it acquires raw gold from local small-scale miners for refining, Mr Anaba said.
Situated in the Kotoka International Airport enclave in Accra, it is a free zone company that produces for export and the general foreign market, with a mandate to sell 30 per cent of its output to the local market.
In 2022, Gold Coast Refinery was handed the right to mint Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II’s commemorative gold coin.
It has participated in various minerals exhibitions and expos in the country, including the Ghana Gold Expo 2021 and the Ghana Mining Week in Takoradi in the Western Region.
