Most of the deposits were discovered in Karamoja, a parched sprawling area in the country's northeastern corner on the border with Kenya.

Ghana's central bank is seeking to raise the gold component of its reserves in a bid to strengthen the West African country's local cedi currency.

It reported that a worker died on Monday in an engineering-related accident at its Kusasalethu mine.

Northam says takeover of Royal Bafokeng Platinum by Implats would be anti-competitive as it would concentrate significant mineral reserves with one company.

Gecamines holds minority stakes in several of the world's largest copper and cobalt projects.

“Supply is fairly constrained and you will not see supply from mines growing in the near or medium-term future,” said the World Platinum Investment Council.

KCM will appoint an adviser to help it find an equity investor willing to fund the mine's expansion.

The increase is due to the lifting of certain exemptions granted, says the director of the ministry's statistics unit.