India to own 80% of Gold refinery in Accra

The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr George Mireku Duker has revealed the Indian government will own 80% of the Gold refinery being established in Accra.

The remaining twenty percent(20%), however, belongs to the government of Ghana.

“The India government owns 80%. If we retain 20% of the refined gold…if Bank of Ghana is buying the gold, it’s the cost of the refining of the gold that is what we will get 20%. It is the cost of the refining that we have 20% and not the entire gold,” Mr Duker said.

The Deputy Minister made the revelation in an interview on 3FM Sunrise on Thursday, November 4.

According to him, the $25million gold refinery was solely funded by Indian government with Ghana providing the land worth 20% of the whole project, the basis for the 80,20 percentage shares.

The ownership is however subject to a 50/50 review in 5years time and a total take over, subsequently.

“The percentage of ownership has time lines. The Indian government built everything and we provided them with 20%. The 20% is our land but they built everything and that is our commitment”, Mr Duker said .

“There is an arrangement for the project. In five years’ time, there is an arrangement for renegotiation to get to 50%-50%. We have space to renegotiate and in another 6-year, we will have the opportunity to renegotiate to buy the entire shares,” he added.

Speaking on the programme, Mr Duker said the project is about 90% complete and is expected to be commissioned by November this year.

“We are engaging to find how the gold would be maintained here to create jobs for the youth”, he said.

“By the end of November, we may commission the gold refinery. We were to commission it by the middle of November but from what they are telling me, they are almost 95% done. There are few touches that they are doing and also depending on the president’s schedules, we are hoping to commission it by the end of November 2021.”