Ghanaian government expects increased gold production in 2020

Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, said that the Nana Akufo-Addo government expects the country’s mining sector to surpass last year’s production of over four million ounces of gold.

According to local media, the minister said this goal is not unrealistic taking into account that AngloGold Ashanti’s 30-million-ounce Obuasi mine has been restarted and that, across the country, production was not suspended even at the peak of the covid-19 pandemic.

In his view, the resilience of the mining sector has also become evident as investments in exploration, technology and human resources remained steady through 2020.

Talking at the Ghana Mining Industry Awards organized by the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Asomah-Cheremeh also said that the government has realized that it needs to strengthen its policies when it comes to extractives industries so that they can back the country’s socio-economic development. 

The minister’s support to the mining sector comes at a time when environmental groups have taken it to the courts to try to stop mining projects such as a bauxite mine being proposed by a Chinese firm in the Atewa Range Forest.