$450m manganese refinery to be constructed-Jinapor

The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, has disclosed that work is far advanced for the commencement of the construction of a $450 million manganese refinery in Ghana.

Ghana Manganese Company Limited (GMC) seeks to construct the country’s first bauxite refinery at Nsuta in the Western Region.

The project is in collaboration with its majority shareholder, Tanyun Manganese Industry Group (TMI), a Chinese company.

Already, feasibility studies have been completed, paving the way for the first phase of the refinery project to commence before the end of the year.

The refinery has an average annual sales revenue of about $1.3 billion, excluding tax, and an annual pre-tax income of $174.4 million.

The refinery project is estimated to create 360 new jobs, comprised of 330 production workers and 30 technical and management personnel.

Two power plants of 20 megawatts (MW) each will be built to support the operation of the refinery.

Delivering a speech at the African Prosperity Dialogue (APD), organized by Africa Prosperity Network (APN), Mr. Jinapor underscored the importance of value addition to the successful and responsible harnessing of natural resources, urging African countries to follow the blueprint being implemented by the government of Ghana.

He gave prominence to the key role value addition can play in the economic fortunes of African countries and implored on the countries to begin instituting measures that will ensure mineral resources are exploited effectively.

Touching on the theme of the Conference, “Delivering Prosperity in Africa: Produce, Add Value, and Trade,” Mr Jinapor identified value addition and local participation as the two principles fundamental to the extraction of more valuable mineral resources and making the extractive sector the bedrock of economic turnaround.

He espoused that the pre-colonial practice of “digging and shipping” should make way for the addition of value to minerals as it enhances the revenue generation capacity of the country, culminating in the transformation of the economy.

To encourage other countries to chart the same path as Ghana, the Minister outlined some policy interventions made by the Ghanaian government that are already bearing fruit. “We cannot transform our economies if we continue to dig and ship.

That is why since assuming office in 2017, Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo has been working to ensure that we add value to our mineral resources.

Today, for the first time in our country, the Government has established, through a Public Private Partnership, a four hundred kilogramme (400kg) gold refinery to refine the gold we produce, and we are working to secure a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Certification,” he stated.

“The Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC), which we established in 2018 and 2019, respectively, have been working to promote and develop integrated aluminium and iron and steel industries, from exploration, through refining, to downstream production.

On local participation, he said the importance of citizens benefiting directly from the resources in their countries cannot be overemphasized, adding that the government owes the citizens a duty to facilitate their participation in the exploitation of their resource.

He further disclosed that the government is currently working on a policy with the Ghana Chamber of Mines that will compel large-scale mining companies to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange, creating a platform for Ghanaian ownership of the companies through the acquisition of shares.

 “To derive optimal benefit from our natural resources, African peoples must participate fully across the entire value chain of the industry. Our peoples must have equity in the companies involved in the exploration, production, and processing of our mineral resources.

It is for this reason that the Government of Ghana is working with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to ensure that large-scale mining companies operating in the country list on the Ghana Stock Exchange, enabling Ghanaians to acquire shares in these companies.

We have also enacted the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020 (L.I. 2431), to promote local content in the mining industry,” he said.

“Pursuant to this law, we have increased the items on the Local Procurement List of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians from 29 to 50, retaining, here in our country, some $3, billion annually, which would have otherwise been exported.”

The second edition of the APD series kicked off on Thursday, January 25, and ended on Saturday, January 28, 2024.

The dialogue series, an initiative of APN, seeks to bring Africa’s political and business leaders together in a conference with other thought leaders on Africa.

Not only will they brainstorm on the all-important single-market project for the continent, but the dialogues will also create an annual platform for the continent’s leaders to spearhead collaborative implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.