Ibrahim Mahama took management of the Damang gold mine lower than a month in the past. His first intuition was to not promote to the worldwide market. It was at hand each gram to Ghana’s central financial institution.
Damang Gold Mine Restricted, the automobile by means of which Mahama’s Engineers and Planners Firm Restricted acquired the Damang mine in Ghana’s Western Area, delivered roughly 110 kilograms of gold, value roughly $11.8 million at present costs, to the Ghana Gold Board’s assay laboratory on the Accra Worldwide Airport on April 30. The whole first manufacturing run went to GoldBod, which is able to assay, worth and buy the gold on behalf of the Financial institution of Ghana earlier than refining and including it to the central financial institution’s exterior reserve holdings.
GoldBod chief govt Sammy Gyamfi obtained a delegation from the mine led by Mahama personally and used the event to make a pointed commentary about the remainder of the business. Artisanal and small-scale miners contributed an estimated 104 metric tonnes of gold producing roughly $10 billion to Ghana’s reserves. Giant-scale mining corporations, which function a number of the richest deposits within the nation, have been directing far much less of their output by means of nationwide reserve channels.
“This daring and patriotic step by Damang Gold Mine should problem us as a nation to start a critical dialog concerning the want for large-scale mining corporations to contribute meaningfully to Ghana’s gold reserve accumulation,” Gyamfi mentioned.
The transaction is the primary seen implementation of the Ghana Accelerated Nationwide Reserve Accumulation Programme, the federal government’s coverage framework authorised by Parliament and designed to channel domestically produced gold instantly into the Financial institution of Ghana’s reserves. Paul Bleboo, head of gold administration on the Financial institution of Ghana, mentioned the gold provided would play a important position in boosting the nation’s reserve place and cushioning the cedi towards exterior shocks.
Damang Mine has been in Mahama’s hands for only weeks. Engineers and Planners was awarded the Damang mining lease on April 7 after a aggressive tender course of by which the corporate scored highest throughout technical experience, methodology and native content material standards. The handover from Gold Fields, which operated the asset in Ghana’s Western Area for almost three many years, was accomplished at a proper ceremony on April 18.
To again the acquisition, Stanbic Financial institution Ghana and Normal Financial institution of South Africa organized a $205 million syndicated mortgage with Ecobank Ghana and Absa Financial institution Ghana as collaborating lenders, structured to assist expanded operations at each Damang and the close by Tarkwa mine.
Engineers and Planners has publicly acknowledged plans to speculate roughly $1.2 billion throughout the 2 operations and has already dispatched 30 Caterpillar 785D dump vehicles to web site. The mine employs greater than 2,000 staff, and President John Dramani Mahama, Ibrahim’s elder brother, has directed that there be no layoffs in the course of the transition.
The political dimension of the transaction has not gone unnoticed. Ibrahim Mahama is the brother of the sitting president, and his mine is being held up by the federal government because the mannequin it desires each large-scale mining operator to comply with. Critics have questioned whether or not the tender course of was sufficiently arms-length. The federal government has maintained that the award was made transparently on benefit.
Regardless of the politics, the economics of the primary supply are easy. 100 and ten kilograms of gold, valued at roughly $11.8 million, is now headed into Ghana’s central financial institution reserves. Mahama has made his place clear from the primary gram.
