Ghana gold output rises 4 pct in 2008

ACCRA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Ghana'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 .

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