According to the out-going Minister of Lands, Forestry and Natural Resources, the country intends to develop its struggling bauxite industry into an integrated one.
He was reported by the mining sector media to have said that Ghana is seeking to develop an integrated bauxite industry in order to draw more value from its natural resources.
“Bauxite would be a way to industrialize the country very fast,” he was quoted as saying on the sidelines of the Indaba mining conference in South Africa last Wednesday .
By selling its resources without seeking to process them in order to generate more value, “Ghana is losing money,” he said.
Bauxite is a key ingredient used to make alumina which is in turn refined into aluminum.
He said that Vimetco NV , the US’s Alcoa Inc, and China’s Bosai Minerals Group had all expressed interest in participating in Ghana’s desired development of an integrated bauxite industry.
He noted that talks have already started with Vimetco. He indicated that Vimetco has submitted an application for a bauxite exploration license that the ministry is trying to review “as fast as possible.”
Ghana’s bauxite industry has been suffering decline due to poor railway lines and deteriorating road networks that are hampering transportation of the resource.
A GNA report in 2009 quoted Prince William Ankrah, General Secretary of the Ghana Mines Workers’ Union as saying that due to the poor nature of railway lines and roads bauxite meant for export could not be hauled to the ports and are locked up at Awaso a bauxite producing area.
Reuters also reported in 2009 that Rio Tinto was selling its 80 percent stake in Ghana’s only bauxite mine at Awaso to Chinese minerals group Bosai.
According to the Reuters report Rio Tinto spokesman Stefano Bertolli cited the following as reasons for selling off the stake: “Apart from the prevailing unfavourable market conditions, the infrastructure is not ready yet for that programme … the cost of power and the supply system has to improve.”
Mining is significant to Ghana’s economy. The country is the second largest producer of gold in Africa after South Africa and it is among the world’s five top producers of manganese ore. The country also produces significant quantities of bauxite and diamond.
Source: ghanabusinessnews.com
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