- Armah-Kofi Buah Pitches China on Processing, Technology and Local Value Creation
Ghana is seeking a deeper mining partnership with China as the government attempts to move beyond the export of raw minerals and use the country’s resource base to support industrialisation, technology transfer and higher-value domestic production.
Speaking at the 28th China Mining Conference and Exhibition in Tianjin, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said future partnerships should extend into processing, infrastructure, skills development, technology and local supply chains.
“Our minerals must do more than generate export receipts. They must support value addition, industrial development, skills, jobs and opportunities for our young people,” he said.
The government’s pitch reflects a longstanding weakness in Ghana’s mining economy. Gold and other minerals generate substantial foreign exchange and fiscal revenues, but a significant share of the value created after extraction is still captured outside the domestic economy.
Accra’s latest strategy is therefore less about increasing extraction volumes than about retaining more of the refining, processing, manufacturing and supply-chain activity that follows.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said Ghana is reviewing its minerals and mining framework while also pursuing the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining, stronger oversight and improved transparency across the gold value chain.
He pointed to existing Chinese investments by Chifeng Gold Group, Shandong Gold and Zijin Mining as evidence that the commercial relationship already has a significant foundation. The government now wants that relationship to extend into activities that create more value inside Ghana.
The ambition spans several minerals. Ghana wants to refine more of its gold, develop an integrated aluminium industry, use iron ore to support domestic steel production and position critical minerals to serve emerging technologies and industries.
If those plans become commercially viable, mining could create stronger linkages with manufacturing, construction, engineering, financial services and energy rather than remaining predominantly an extractive export sector.
The challenge is that local processing is considerably more capital- and energy-intensive than extraction. Refining plants, smelters and downstream manufacturing facilities require reliable power, transport infrastructure, water, technology and long-term financing, making value addition far more demanding than simply producing ore for export.
Ghana’s partnership with China is therefore attractive partly because Beijing has deep experience in industrial infrastructure, mineral processing, engineering and large-scale manufacturing.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah framed the opportunity as a reciprocal commercial proposition rather than a request for aid or capital alone. “We have the resources. China has deep experience in capital, technology, processing, infrastructure and industrial development,” he said.
“Between us lies an opportunity to build commercially sound partnerships in which Ghana creates more value at home, investors succeed, communities share in prosperity and both countries emerge stronger.”
That distinction is important because not all foreign investment generates the same domestic economic benefit. A processing plant that imports most of its equipment, employs relatively few local workers and develops weak links with Ghanaian suppliers may add less value than an integrated project that trains local engineers, buys locally and supports downstream manufacturing.
The real measure of success will therefore be the depth of local economic linkages rather than the headline size of foreign investment alone.
Technology transfer is central to that calculation. The minister said Ghana wants deeper technical exchanges and mining-specific training for engineers, geologists and regulators, while also highlighting digital technology, geological information, automation and traceability as priority areas for cooperation.
“You cannot negotiate confidently over what you do not fully know,” he said, arguing that modern geological information is essential to resource sovereignty.
Better geological data can strengthen the state’s bargaining position when negotiating mining concessions and investment agreements because it gives government a clearer understanding of the resources being offered to investors.
It also has implications for revenue assurance and transparency, particularly in the gold sector, where digital traceability can help authorities determine where minerals originate and how they move through the formal economy. In that sense, information itself becomes an economic asset rather than merely a technical input.
The environmental dimension is equally significant. Ghana’s mining sector continues to face severe pressure from illegal and environmentally destructive small-scale mining, particularly the pollution of rivers and degradation of agricultural land.
The government says cooperation with China should therefore extend into reclamation, tailings management, environmental protection and restoration of mined-out areas.
“A river is not simply an environmental statistic. It is drinking water. It is farming. It is the livelihood of a community. It is an inheritance held in trust for a child not yet born,” Mr Armah-Kofi Buah said.
The broader point is that environmental degradation imposes real economic costs, meaning reclamation and protection should be treated as part of mining economics rather than as peripheral regulatory obligations.
The government has linked that approach to the creation of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat and the Responsible Cooperative Mining and Skills Development Programme.
These initiatives are intended to formalise parts of the small-scale mining economy while improving environmental and operational standards. Their effectiveness, however, will depend on enforcement, financing and whether informal operators can be brought into a regulated commercial framework.
China’s response could prove important. Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng said Beijing remained prepared to develop pragmatic proposals for the fair sharing of benefits from mining investments and to provide financing, investment, technology and technical support to developing economies through open and transparent arrangements.
For Ghana, the real significance will lie in the commercial terms that emerge from those discussions rather than the diplomatic rhetoric surrounding them.
The next phase will require Ghana to translate the partnership into measurable domestic value. That means processing capacity, skilled employment, local procurement, infrastructure, technology transfer, stronger environmental performance and predictable public revenues.
Without reliable energy, transport, water and long-term capital, however, Ghana risks attracting isolated processing projects rather than building a coherent industrial ecosystem around its minerals.
The opportunity is nevertheless substantial as the global energy transition and advanced manufacturing increase demand for minerals used in batteries, electronics and renewable technologies.
Countries that combine geological resources with domestic processing capabilities stand to capture a larger share of these emerging supply chains. Ghana therefore faces a strategic choice between remaining primarily a supplier of raw minerals or using those resources as a foundation for wider industrial development.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah’s message in Tianjin suggests the government wants the latter. The measure of success will not be the number of Chinese mining companies operating in Ghana, but whether Ghanaian workers, businesses and communities capture substantially more value from each tonne of mineral extracted.
That is the real test of whether a deeper Ghana-China mining relationship becomes a genuine industrial partnership rather than simply another expansion of extraction.
