- Ghana Manganese Targets 700,000 Tonnes in August as Rains Ease
Ghana Manganese Company is targeting production of about 700,000 tonnes of manganese ore in August as weather conditions improve, providing a potential boost to its ambitious plan to substantially expand output and exports from its Nsuta operations in the Western Region.
The company’s August target comes after heavy rains affected mining activity and complicated production during the wet season, highlighting the operational sensitivity of open-pit mining to weather conditions, haulage efficiency and access to ore-bearing areas.
Ghana Manganese Company expects the easing of rainfall to allow operations to recover and production volumes to increase during the month.
The 700,000-tonne monthly target is significant because Ghana Manganese is pursuing a much larger expansion programme aimed at lifting annual production and exports to as much as 10 million tonnes in 2026.
That target would represent a major increase in the scale of operations at Nsuta and place greater demands on mining, haulage, processing and port infrastructure.
Earlier this year, the company linked its 10 million-tonne ambition to improvements in bulk-shipping capacity at the Port of Takoradi, where the 300,000-deadweight-tonne MV CBS Years became the largest bulk carrier to berth at the port.
The vessel’s arrival was described as part of a strategy to move substantially larger volumes of manganese through Takoradi and reduce logistics constraints as output expands.
For Ghana, the production increase carries implications beyond the company itself.
Manganese is an important mineral export and an increasingly strategic commodity globally because of its use in steelmaking and emerging battery technologies. Higher production could consequently support export earnings, port revenues and foreign-exchange inflows if the additional output is successfully transported and sold into international markets.
But the larger economic question is whether Ghana can capture more value domestically rather than continuing to export predominantly raw manganese ore.
The government and Ghana Manganese Company have been advancing plans for a manganese refinery at Nsuta-Tarkwa as part of a broader shift towards mineral beneficiation and local processing.
Government information indicates that the proposed plant is expected to increase manganese concentration from around 27% to approximately 40% and eventually support the production of higher-grade products, including material suitable for the battery supply chain.
The refinery project is therefore critical to the long-term economics of the production expansion.
Simply increasing the tonnage of raw ore exported would generate higher volumes and potentially greater revenue, but domestic processing could retain a larger share of the mineral’s value within Ghana through industrial activity, technical employment, taxes and downstream investment.
The proposed refinery forms part of an industrial strategy under which Ghana is seeking to reduce its dependence on exporting unprocessed minerals.
Ghana Manganese Company is 90% owned through interests linked to Tianyuan Manganese Industry, with the Ghanaian state holding the remaining 10%, according to publicly available information on the company’s ownership structure.
The expansion, however, also raises environmental and community-management questions.
An investigation published by Global Witness earlier this year raised concerns about the impact of rising manganese production on communities around the Nsuta concession, including claims relating to waste accumulation, dust, water quality and the proximity of mining infrastructure to settlements.
The organisation said Ghana Manganese Company’s production target had risen from 5.70 million tonnes in 2024 to 8.00 million tonnes in 2025, with a further target of 10 million tonnes for 2026.
Those allegations underline the challenge facing both the company and regulators as output rises.
A substantial increase in mining volumes inevitably increases waste movement, haulage requirements and pressure on roads, water systems and surrounding communities unless environmental controls and infrastructure expand at a similar pace.
That makes the quality of the expansion as important as the quantity of ore produced.
From an operational perspective, August’s 700,000-tonne target will also provide an indication of whether Ghana Manganese can accelerate sufficiently during the second half of the year to remain on course for its annual objective.
A simple monthly average required to achieve 10 million tonnes over a full year would be approximately 833,333 tonnes. Actual mining production, however, is rarely uniform because rainfall, equipment availability, ore sequencing and maintenance can cause significant month-to-month variations.
The easing of the rains therefore presents the company with an opportunity to increase output during the drier production window.
Logistics will remain another critical factor.
Higher mine output only translates into export revenue when the ore can be transported efficiently from Nsuta to Takoradi and loaded onto vessels without creating bottlenecks.
The deployment of larger bulk carriers is intended to improve that export chain. The MV CBS Years, with capacity of about 300,000 tonnes deadweight, was introduced specifically as Ghana Manganese sought to increase shipment volumes and support its 2026 expansion plan.
For the company, the August production push therefore sits at the intersection of three ambitions: higher mining output, larger export volumes and eventual domestic processing.
Whether those objectives can be achieved simultaneously will determine the broader economic value of Ghana’s manganese expansion.
The immediate focus is the weather-assisted recovery in production.
If Ghana Manganese succeeds in delivering around 700,000 tonnes this month and sustains stronger output through the remainder of the year, it could move closer to its aggressive 2026 production goal.
But the longer-term measure of success will go beyond tonnes mined.
It will depend on whether Ghana can convert expanding manganese production into stronger foreign-exchange earnings, local processing, industrial employment and sustainable benefits for communities surrounding one of the country’s oldest mining operations.
