The Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says the government is ready to collaborate with the board and management of Rand Refinery to help Ghana obtain London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) Certification.
Underscoring the importance of the LBMA certificate to the government’s plan to develop the mineral industry and make Ghana a key player in the refinery of mineral resources, Dr Bawumia said attaining the certification will propel Ghana to participate and exploit fully the benefits in the mineral value chain.
He stated that the gamut of experience and expertise of the Certification makes them strategic and beneficial partners to Ghana and that, partnering them will help the country evade the blunders other countries committed on their journey to creating refinery hubs in their mining sector, “because you have a very long history in this area and also help us not to repeat mistakes of others”.
Dr Bawumia made these remarks when the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, led the delegation from Rand Refinery to call on the Vice President on Monday, October 31, 2022 in Accra.
The meeting was to deliberate on ways of actualising government’s agenda to make Ghana a hub for the processing and refining of mineral resources and in particular, obtaining the LBMA Certification for the country.
The Chairman of Rand Refinery, Mr. Rams Ramashira, disclosed that his outfit has held positive preliminary talks with the Ministry and other key stakeholders.
He said the CEO of Rand Refinery is a member of the LBMA Board and “we are very happy to be of assistance and share some experiences and strike some alliances and hope the meeting with key stakeholders will help develop something concrete for the two parties”.
Earlier on Monday, 31 October, 2022 the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel A. Jinapor, received the visiting Rand Refinery delegation at the Ministry. He indicated that his invitation to the Rand refinery is to have them hold discussions and share ideas on how to move forward with the partnership that exist between the parties.
He advocated for an intelligent and effective collaboration between the government and LBMA to ensure that the certification is issued.
He took the team through the itinerary for the visit and hoped that it will be a fruitful one, as they get the opportunity to meet the Vice President, who he said has been very passionate about leveraging the gold industry and the gold value chain in Ghana, in support of the national economy.
“The idea is that, this visit is productive and substantive and that it gives us the opportunity to delve into the concrete issues with concrete outcomes”, he said.
The sector Minister thanked the team for their hospitality during his last visit to their Refinery in South Africa, indicating that the tour of their refinery was very enlightening and educative. He hoped that at the end of all meetings and discussions the Ministry would be able to acquire sufficient mentorship from Rand Refinery.
“We should be able to find a workable platform to engage, because as I believe all of us acknowledge that your refinery turns to be the leader when it comes to the business of Gold Refinery in Africa and therefore whatever we seek to do here in Ghana, our idea is to get sufficient mentorship from your outfit.”
The sector Minister said as much as possible it is his desire that Rand Refinery will be able to establish a branch in Ghana perhaps through a partnership with an existing Refinery.
The CEO of Rand Refinery, Mr. Praveen Baijnath on his part said they are excited and very expectant about the opportunity to partner Ghana on the event of establishing a Refinery in the country.
He alluded that their general objective on this trip is to meet all stakeholders involved in the gold value chain to better understand government expectations and to consider how best they can unlock their assets available to meet up on that level.
“Our general strategic objective is to collect much intelligence and data as possible to build a business case and see how we can develop it”.
Also with the Minister were the Deputy Minister in Charge of Mines, George Mireku Duker, the CEO of Minerals Commission, Mr. Martin Ayisi, the Advisor on Mines to the Minister, Mr. Ben Aryee, the Managing Director of PMMC, Nana AKwasi Awuah and other officials from the Ministry.
