The Ghana Chamber of Mines has expressed confidence in a 16 percentage points increment in gold production by its members for this year.
The anticipated increment in gold production comes on the back a 12.1 percentage points fall in gold production for last year – 2020 – occasioned by the Covid pandemic.
Total gold production for last year fell by 12.1 percentage points to 4.02 million ounces from 4.57 million ounces in 2019.
The decline in production represents the highest year-on-year decline in 16 years – since 2004.
But despite the fall in gold production, the country however, retained its position as Africa’s top gold producer.
During his presentation at the recently held 93rd Annual General Meeting of the Chamber of Mines, President of the Chamber, Eric Asubonteng, noted that the easing of COVID-19 restrictions bodes well for the entire sector.
Read: 12% fall in gold production the biggest in 16 years
“Overall, we project that global supply of gold in 2021 will exceed the corresponding output in 2020. In 2021, the Chamber expects most of its gold-producing member companies to recover from the drags that characterized their operations in the preceding year. Overall, the gold output of producing member companies for 2021 is forecasted to range between 3 million to 3.3 million ounces,” he noted.
Mr. Asubonteng further highlighted the contribution of the Chamber to the revenue of the central government as well as their contribution to the local economy.
“Producing member companies of the Chamber returned $3.67 billion out of the mineral revenue of $5.14 billion to the country. This represents 71 percent of the revenue of producing member companies. The Chamber and its producing member companies prioritize the sourcing of inputs from manufacturers and suppliers in Ghana. This is a direct way to retain minerals value in the country and to stimulate broad-based linkages across different sectors.”
He continued, “Pursuant to this, producing member companies of the Chamber spent $4.387 billion in Ghana through payments to manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services, taxes, and financing of social investment projects. In essence, 85.7 percent of producing member companies’ expenditure was retained in
Ghana.”
Also: Ghana loses position as second-largest recipient of investments in gold exploration
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the commodity markets in a variety of ways. Company operations have been affected through isolated outbreaks and government-mandated shutdowns and the demand for many commodities remain low with a lower near-term demand on the horizon.
One mineral that has benefitted from the fears and uncertainty associated with the pandemic was gold. In 2020 the price of gold shot up around the period when the COVID-19 infection was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
After that declaration, many investors sought to convert their assets into bullion and its related assets, which directly provided the needed momentum for a sustained rise in the price of gold which jumped up by about 5 percent from April 2020 to April 2021, moving from $1,681 per ounce to $1,759 per ounce.
