The Precious Minerals Marketing Company, the state agency mandated to supervise all gold trading activities in Ghana is to construct an ultra-modern assay centre to flush out fake gold traders in the Gold industry.
Speaking to GBC’s Business News at the State Owned Entities’ (SOE’s) conference, the Managing Director of Precious Minerals Marketing Company, Dr. Opare Hammond said the establishment of the gold assaying centre is to ensure quality and accountability of all gold exports.
“The centre is to ensure that the value of gold produced in the country especially by small scale miners meets international requirements.” he added.
Dr. Hammond revealed that the facility will ensure that Ghana can properly assay and analyze gold earmarked for exportation irrespective of their size, to determine its quantity and purity. “This would lead to the much needed boost in Ghana’s gold exports.”
Although the PMMC is mandated by law to determine the gold content of any gold ore to be exported by a Licensed Gold Exporter (LGE) using the appropriate assay methods, it currently lacks the capacity to meet the international gold assay standards.
As a result, large-scale gold mining companies, over the years, assay the gold they export using their own facilities which deprives the government of first hand access to data on the quantity of gold exported by these companies.
Ghana’s gold output rose to 2.805 million ounces in 2017, up 10.2 percent from the previous year. Despite the increase the country has experienced revenue leakages from gold exports.
Story by Mabel Adorkor Annang
