The Market

Industry Composition

Globally, Ghana is renowned for four (4) important mineral resources, namely gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite. The minerals extractive industry had fifteen (15) major large scale mining companies operating in 2015. Out of these, thirteen (13) produced gold whilst one (1) each produced bauxite and manganese. Below is a table of these companies and their type of mining operation

Additionally, there were over three hundred registered small-scale mining groups and ninety mine support service companies. The small-scale mining industry is reserved for Ghanaians.

Minerals Prospecting  

The Minerals Commission issued 1,261 permits in 2015 compared to 1,366 in 2014 to regulate various mineral operations as detailed below

2015 Production Summary 

The year 2015 witnessed a mixed performance in the production of the traditional minerals. Gold and Diamonds production witnessed a significant fall in production whilst manganese and bauxite saw increases in production. A total of 3,623,740 ounces of gold was produced representing 18.96% decrease over 2013 production of 4,471,573 ounces.

Small scale miners’ contribution to total national production amounted to 1,031,176 ounces (28.46%). The reduction in production was mainly attributed to the poor performance of the gold price on the world market during 2015.

Diamond production for the review year was 174,364 carats. This represents a significant decrease of 27.72% over 2014 figure of 241,235 carats. In 2015, a total of 1,014,605 metric tonnes of bauxite was produced compared to 798,114 metric tonnes in 2014. This represents an increase of 216,491 metric tonnes (27.13%) over the previous year. Manganese production also increased marginally by 2.01%, from 1,531,394 metric tonnes in 2014 to 1,562,769 metric tonnes in 2015.

Investment Inflow into the Mining Sector

Total Direct Investment into the mining sector in 2015 amounted to US$965 million. Out of this, US$862 million (89.33%) went into mining; US$84 million (8.70%) was spent on exploration projects, whilst US$19 million (1.97%) was spent by Mine Support Services Companies.

Table below shows investment inflow by type of activity from 2000 to 2015.

The figures above shows a considerable dip in investments into the mining sector, especially in exploration and production operations. The major reason was the declining gold price. Among companies that invested significant amounts in the Ghanaian mining sector were Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Adamus Resources Limited, GoldFields Ghana Ltd, Chirano Gold Mines Ltd and Perseus Mining Company.

Employment

There was a marginal decrease in the mine labour, from 21,922 in 2014 to 19,956 employees in 2015.  This is as a result of the decline in gold price on the global commodities market. This is expected to dwindle further in 2016 unless the metal price goes up. It is noteworthy that, out of the total mine labour of 19,956 employees in 2015, expatriates represented 1.5% (291) compared to 1.6% (342) of a total mine labour of 21,922 in 2014. 

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