Electrochem to employ additional 2,500 workers for manual mining

Electrochem Ghana Limited, Africa’s largest industrial salt production mine will be employing additional 2500 workers for manual mining as it enters next year.

Information received is that the company has already begun the process of employing this number of workers to beef up its workforce as the company’s activities in Ada Songoor become fully operational.

Just last week, the Company employed 372 more people and needs about 2,500 additional people for manual mining.

It has been established that Electrochem Ghana Limited has reserved part of its developed pans for manual mining to solve the unemployment problems in the Ada traditional area through the creation of additional jobs.

The company intends to employ over 7,000 Ghanaian youth by next year.

Currently, 3000 persons have been employed in the first phase of the project with 4,000 more to be engaged when the salt concession hits full operations in 2024.

Meanwhile, the company according to information will begin this year with an additional 2500 workers, mainly indigenes and youth from Ada and its surrounding communities.

According to sources, the call for the recruitment of an additional 2500 workers is in line with the company’s efforts in closing the unemployment gap in the area and also fulfilled its promise to the people of Ada.

It would be recalled that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the McDan Group, Dr Daniel Mckorley disclosed during the commissioning of Electrochem’s Salt Mine and Processing Plant at Ada in the Greater Accra Region, that the company seeks to employ over 7000 Ghanaian youth to work at its mine.

This latest development is in fulfillment of that agenda as it would bring total development to the area and also improve the livelihoods of the people.

Electrochem

Electrochem, a subsidiary of the McDan Group had been granted a 15-year lease to transform the Ada Songor salt concession which hitherto had been left to deteriorate due to mismanagement.

The concession which had been in existence for over 54 years, had been left in the hands of the locals but the government in 2020 following its diversification agenda by utilizing natural resources and relying on public-private partnerships to transform the economy, gave the lagoon to Electrochem for development.

Electrochem has indeed managed to transform the concession in two years and provided jobs to the local people to ultimately boost the economy.

Currently, the company is producing 650,000 metric tons of salt and will move to one million metric tons next year and two million by 2025.

This is only the first phase of the project and it is believed that by the time the company is done with the refinery and other sections, it could lead the industrialization drive of the country, by providing jobs and boosting the economy.

The $88-million Electrochem Salt Washing Plant processes 650,000 tonnes of industrial salt per annum, mined from a 41,000-acre field, straddling at least 33 communities in the Ada Songhor Salt site.

The plant, already in operation and producing at 99.99 percent purity, has become the biggest in Africa, larger in acreage than the Walvis Bay of Namibia, which is about 16,700 acres hitherto known to be the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Production is expected to ramp up to around two million tonnes per annum by 2027 and the number of employees is also expected to increase to 7,000 with the completion of the second phase.

The goal of the company is to produce and supply salt not only to local and regional markets but particularly to export to the global markets as well.