Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Mining injects US$2.9bn into economy

Ghana’s mining and mineral industry injected a total of US$2.9 billion into the economy in 2009, representing an increase of 27 percent from the 2008 figure of US$2.3billion.

Latest figures released from the Ghana Chamber of Mines revealed that gold revenue was up by 28 percent from US$2.2 billion in 2008 to US$ 2.9 billion in 2009.

The rise was due to an appreciation in gold output by 13.3 percent from 2,585,993 ounces in 2008 to 2,930,328 ounces in 2009 coupled with an increase in the average realised gold price by 14 percent from US$852 per ounce in 2008 to US$970 per ounce in 2009.

Average aggregated cash cost was US$668 per ounce in 2009 compared with the US$651 per ounce recorded in 2008, indicating an increase of six percent.

Mr. Jurgen Eijgendaal, the former President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, made these known in Accra at the 82nd Annual General Meeting.

He explained that the increase in gold production at the Golden Star Wassa Limited, Chirano Gold Mines, Gold Fields Ghana-Tarkwa, AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi, Golden Star-Bogoso and Newmont Ahafo cumulatively offset the decline at the AngloGold Ashanti-Iduapriem mine, which accounted for the rise in overall production of gold.

Gold production at the Gold Fields Ghana Tarkwa mine increased slightly, by about one percent, from 659,308 ounces in 2008 to 664,515 ounces in 2009. This marginal increase was on account of the installation of an expansion plant in the middle of the year which dampened the adverse effects of the teething problems encountered and the lower grade ore mined.

Output at Gold Field’s mine at Damang also increased marginally by about three percent from 197,025 ounces in 2008 to 202,505 ounces in 2009. The increase was helped by the build-up of crushed ore stockpile in 2008 that ensured a consistent feed to the mill in 2009.

Cumulatively, the Gold Field group produced a total of 867,020 ounces in 2009 compared with the 856,333 ounces produced in 2008. This represents an increase of 1.3 percent.

AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi mine’s output was 313,331 ounces of gold in 2009, an increase of about 6.8 percent on the 357,102 ounces it produced in 2008. This was on account of improved ore grades. On the other hand, AngloGold Ashanti Iduaprim’s outturn was down five percent from 200,139 ounces produced in 2008 to 189,964 ounces in 2009. The decrease at the Iduapriem was mainly due to a corporate decision to match output to the limited capacity of its tailings storage facility.

Overall, the total output of the AngloGold Ashanti group increased by 2.52 percent from 557,241 ounces in 2008 to 571,295 ounces in 2009.

Golden Star’s Wassa mine recorded an outstanding 78.5 percent increase in production from 125,438 ounces in 2008 to 223,843 ounces in 2009, with its production at the Bogoso/Prestea mine increasing by about nine percent from 170,485 ounces in 2008 to 186,054 ounces in 2009. Together, the Golden Star group produced 409,897 ounces in 2009 - representing an increase of 38.5 percent on the 295,923 ounces in 2008.

The outturn at the Chirano Gold Mines was 182,463 ounces in 2009. This was 52.4 percent higher than the 119,696 ounces it produced in 2008. The increase was attributable to the successful development of the underground to commercial levels in the last quarter of 2009 as well as the processing of increased quantities of high grade ore from the underground at Akwaaba mine.

Output at Newmont Ahafo’s mine was 533,000 ounces in 2009. This represents an increase of 1.7 percent on the 524,000 ounces it produced in 2008.

The Precious Minerals Marketing Company’s (PMMC) total purchases and export of gold from small-scale miners increased substantially, by 81 percent from 202,535 ounces in 2008 to 366,653 ounces in 2009.

PMMC’s purchases and export of diamond from small-scale miners was down significantly by 41 percent, from 598,042 carats in 2008 to 354,443 carats in 2009.

Manganese revenue also increased, by four percent from US$62.3million in 2008 to US$64.9 million in 2009.A strong result, considering the fact that shipment of the mineral declined by seven percent from 1,089,025 tonnes to 1,012,941 tonnes in the same period.

The fall in shipments was on account of the credit crunch, which had a huge adverse impact on businesses all over the world as well as on the demand for minerals.
Business for Ghana Manganese Company started to improve from the beginning of the second quarter onwards, following a rise in the global aggregate demand for the mineral.

In these circumstances the company was able to increase the price of manganese, which eventually increased its revenue.

Bauxite shipments recorded a downward move of 29.34 percent from 693,991 tonnes in 2008 to 490,367 tonnes in 2009. The decline in volume was in addition to the drop in realised price from US$28.55 to US$22.75 per tonne within the same period, which led to a corresponding reduction in bauxite revenue by about 44 percent from US$19,810,287 in 2008 to US$11,157,480 in 2009.

Bythe end of the year, the industry was giving direct employment to a total of 12,294 people. Of these 98 percent were Ghanaians and two percent expatriates.

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