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Chamber of Mines embraces innovative methods to sustain gold

Ghana Chamber of Mines responds to the rise in the gold price and adopts innovative measures to ensure sustainable production

The Ghana Chamber of Mines says it is adopting innovative approaches to sustain gold production to rake in more revenue from exports.

Gold prices had a sharp rise in prices in the early stages of the spread of the new coronavirus disease, because of low supply of gold as economic activity slowed.

As of 4 June 2020, gold prices hit $1,715 an ounce. This was due to investment in gold being seen as a safe haven in times of uncertainty.

Speaking to Citi Business News about how the mining sector performed in 2019, the chief executive officer of the Chamber of Mines, Sulemanu Konney, said mining companies are adopting innovative means to continue gold production to increase revenue for the state.

“Because we are observing the various protocols, we cannot have everybody on the market. So, we have to find creative means of working with fewer numbers so that we can observe social distancing and the other measures. At the Chamber Secretariat, we are not working full throttle. We are working on a lean roster. It is not everyone who comes to work every day.”

“A similar thing is happening elsewhere, and on the mines as well because we want to reduce the human interaction and the number of people. For example, we need to cut down on the large numbers of people who go to the cafeteria.

“So, these are the initiatives we have come up with to reduce the spread, but at the same time being creative in ensuring that it doesn’t adversely affect production,” he said.

Large-scale output up 6% for 2019

According to the annual report of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, gold output from the large-scale mining sector increased 6% to 2.989 million ounces in 2019 from 2.807 million ounces in 2018.

During the period, small-scale production of gold decreased to 1.588 million ounces in 2019 from 1.984 million ounces in 2018.

Effects of COVID-19

As the novel coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, persons with the disease have been quarantined to in a bid to curb the spread.

Business activities globally continue to witness a dip as they run into huge financial losses. The airline industry is one of the hardest hit with airlines losing billions of dollars due to a huge drop in bookings.

In Ghana, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority has lost almost 95% of its revenue because of the COVID-19-induced ban on international passenger travel.

In the wake of the pandemic, Twitter told its employees to work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The company also said it was “strongly encouraging” all of its 5,000 employees around the world not to come to work.

Ghana so far has recorded 12,929 cases, 66 deaths and 4,468 recoveries.

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Henry Cobblah

Henry Cobblah is a Tech Developer, Entrepreneur, and a Journalist. With over 15 Years of experience in the digital media industry, he writes for over 7 media agencies and shows up for TV and Radio discussions on Technology, Sports and Startup Discussions.

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