Chirano Gold Mines pays $13m dividend to government

Chirano Gold Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Kinross Gold Corporation has paid the government of Ghana 13 million dollars following the declaration of the gold mining firm’s dividends for the fiscal year 2017.

At a meeting with the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asuma Cheremeh, Vice President and General Manager of Kinross Chirano; Adriano Sobreira indicated that the payment served a fraction of the significant contributions his outfit had made to local communities across the country.

“We are proud to pay this $13 million dividend to the Government of Ghana. It illustrates our capacity to create and deliver value for our shareholders, our host countries and local communities. This dividend represents only part of the significant contributions Kinross has made to local communities and the development of the Ghanaian economy with more than 1.8 billion dollars spent in the country since 2011”, he stated.

In response the minister commended the company for honouring their agreement with government and admonished other mining companies to follow the example set by Chirano Gold Mines Limited and come through with the declaration of their dividends as they are obliged to do.

He further disclosed that a report submitted by the Auditor General on the public account for 2014, only four(4) out of the twenty two(22) mining companies declared and paid dividends to the government.

“We urge all other mining companies who have gotten the opportunity to operate in the country to leave and act in accordance with the law and comply with the agreement that we have entered into with them by earnestly and honestly declaring their dividend and our percentage in it, same be paid to Ghana,” Mr. Asuma Cheremeh stated.

Per the agreement with Chirano Gold Mines Limited, the government of Ghana has a 10 percent carried interest in the mining returns of the company.

Mr. Sobreira added that in addition to fiscal and economic contributions made towards the development of the country, “Kinross Chirano has also strongly supported programmes in health and education, positively impacting more than 212, 000 beneficiaries in communities surrounding the mine in 2017.

Since 2011, the company has spent more than $12million in programmes for local communities, including building clinics and schools, providing vital medical equipment to hospitals and health centres, drastically reducing malaria rates around the mine, and funding professional training for more than 300 youth”.



Other government officials present at the meeting included Deputy Ministers for Lands and Natural Resources; Barbara Oteng Gyasi and Benito Owusu Bio as well as Sulemanu Koney, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Chamber of Mines.