Last Updated- Jan 31, 2009 8:34 - - 0 Comments


Ghana gold output rises 4% in 2008

gold-barsGhana’s gold output rose 4 percent to 2.6 million ounces in 2008, and higher prices pushed overall mining revenues to $2.3 billion, up 28 percent on 2007, Ghana Chamber of Mines data showed on Friday.

Manganese and bauxite shipments both fell by 7 percent, but revenue from the two minerals rose by 42.6 percent and 0.6 percent respectively, the data showed.

Ghana is Africa’s second biggest gold miner after South Africa. It produced nearly 2.5 million ounces of the metal in 2007, when total mining revenues were $1.8 billion.

Gold accounted for more than 95 percent of Ghana’s mineral revenues last year.

The Chamber said cash costs of gold mining companies were $651 per ounce in 2008, and the aggregated realised gold price was $852 per ounce.

Gold, which many investors see as a safe store of value during a downturn, benefited from rapidly deteriorating economic conditions in 2008, and analysts expect prices to remain strong this year as major economies shrink.

Spot bullion traded around $922 per ounce in late business in London on Friday, up 5 percent since the start of 2009.

Ghana is yet to fully recover from a power crisis that began in August 2006, leading to a reduction in electricity supply by 50 percent to big users including gold miners, who responded by building their own power generation facilities.

“We are having to continue to grapple with high production cost, mainly due to high power and fuel cost in our operations,” said Anthony Aubynn, corporate affairs director for the Ghanaian operations of South African miner Gold Fields (GFIJ.J).

Following are gold output figures detailed by companies in ounces:

Company                                         2008         2007

Gold Fields Tarkwa                        659,308      654,352

Newmont Ghana                             524,000      454,212

AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi         357,102      359,961

PMMC Small Scale                          202,535      239,331

AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem   200,139      185,158

Gold Fields Ghana Damang          197,025      179,439

Chirano Gold Mines                        119,776      136,414

Golden Star Prestea/Bogosu       170,485      127,994

Golden Star Wassa                          125,438      126,045

Central African Gold                      30,186       23,915

TOTAL 2,585,994    2,486,821

Source: Reuters

Email This Post Email This Post | Print This Story Print This Story

Comments

Got something to say?