The increase, he said, was made up of payments of GHc399.9 million, GH¢696.9 million, GH¢550.7 million and GH¢0.54 million in corporate tax, income tax, royalties and pay as you earn (PAYE), respectively.

Mr Koney, who announced this at a day’s training workshop for members of the Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA) in Accra last Friday, said producing members of the chamber retained about 70.9 per cent, amounting to $2.30 billion, of the $3.25 billion realised as mineral revenue.

The workshop is an annual collaboration between the chamber and the JBA to keep the media abreast of developments in the mining sector.

He indicated that the sector in 2015 recorded a significant improvement in revenue and merchandise exports of about 14.4 per cent of government revenue and a further 34 per cent of total merchandise exports, while some 3.6 million ounces of gold was also exported within the period, which raised some $3.3 billion for the country.

Local content

Mr Koney indicated that an increase in spending on local goods and services by the producing member companies reflected the chamber’s commitment to promote local content in the sector.

Explaining details of the Minerals and Mining Act (2006), Act 703, and the Minerals and Mining General Regulations (2012), Legislative Instrument (LI) 2173, which required, among other things, that mining companies procure inputs from Ghana to the maximum extent possible, he said LI 2173 was facilitated by the collaborative work among the Minerals Commission, the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) as part of a broad National Supplier Development Programme in the mining industry in 2010.

A key objective of the programme, he said, was to support local enterprises to improve their competitiveness, so that they could participate in the mining value chain.

The collaboration, he noted, identified 28 mining inputs which could be sourced locally with varying degrees of quality improvement.

“Items such as grinding media, bolts and nut, heavy duty electrical cables, HDPE/PVC pipes, calico bags, general lubricants, cement and cement products are all now sourced locally, as against previous regimes when these items were imported,” Mr Koney said.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Mr Sulemanu Koney

Job creation

He indicated that direct jobs created in the sector in 2015 rose to 11,628, representing a 16 per cent increase over the 2015 recorded figure of 9,939.

Out of the figure, Mr Koney said, some 98 per cent were Ghanaians, “an indication that member companies are determined to build local capacities”.

He said the member companies had also invested significantly in various social and economic projects, such as the building of schools in operational areas, scholarship grants, livelihood empowerment projects, agribusinesses, water and sanitation, as well as health infrastructure, aimed at bettering lives, promoting health and building capacity for future employment in the sector.

Value addition

Mr Koney was of the view that the mining industry was a natural candidate for the government’s programme on industrialisation, one-district, one-factory, as there was a significant potential for non-precious minerals such as bauxite.

He suggested that the current mining at Awaso, as well as other yet-to-be-developed deposits, should provide an opportunity for the establishment of an integrated aluminium industry that would potentially create more opportunities through the creation of secondary industries.

He encouraged gold jewellery and gold-smithing organisations to, as a first step, conduct an assessment and health check of the industry and its competitive potential, as well as practical initiatives to be embarked upon, to ensure global competitiveness while seeking collaboration with the government.