Let’s develop our nation on the back of mining – Gold Fields boss

The Executive Vice President and Head of West Africa of Gold Fields Ghana, Mr. Alfred Baku has advised government to re-look at the whole value chain of the mining industry to exploit more opportunities to develop the country.

According to the President, honouring of tax obligations to government by various mining companies is good but only little way of mobilising revenue in pursuing the country’s development agenda.

Speaking at a press interaction in Accra yesterday, Mr Baku said Ghana as a nation needs to decide on putting in place a competitive policy to ensure sustainable development.

“We believe that through local content we should be able to identify areas of production which as a country we should have competitive advantage. We have been mining well over a century and we don’t believe we have asked the strategic questions; what do we want to get out of mining.Countries which have developed on the back of mining will tell you that they look at the whole value chain and exploit opportunities along the value chain,” he said.

He however, mentioned that his outfit is working intimately with the Minerals Commission to identify areas to unearth good potential in the industry.

Sharing some in-depth with Journalists, Mr Baku noted that the country has lots of solar salts which can be exploited and developed to generate huge revenue for the country. “But It’s a shame that as a nation we continue to import activated carbon into this country”, he added.

The executive vice president called on government to put in place long term measures to solve the country’s erratic power supply “Because if you have a situation where the cost of power to manufacturing or industry is much higher than say, for residential customers then naturally we have a problem. It means that from the word go, manufacturing companies are actually at a disadvantage and they are not that competitive to other manufacturing companies out there”.

Gold Fields Ghana

Gold Fields Ghana (GFG) is presently the number one gold mining company and largest gold producer in Ghana, with two operating mines at Damang and Tarkwa. The Company is owned by Gold Fields Limited (GFL), a global multinational precious metals producer, which is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gold Fields Ghana through its foundation is financing the company’s social and community investment programmes and proects in stakeholder communities. The foundation is funded solely by Gold Fields Ghana, donates US$1.00 to the foundation. Additionally, the company remits 1% of its pre-tax profit to the foundation. As at the end of 2014, over US$26million (GHS75million) had been spent by the foundation on community programmes and projects.

Beyond the company’s current support to communities in terms of projects,, the foundation is channeling 10% of its contribution into a separate investment instrument called the Legacy Account to be used by communities for social development after the lives of the mines have expired.

This will enable communities to continue with social development and sustain economic activities, even after the mines have closed and the company has left.