Precious Metals invests 32 billion cedis in operations

The Precious Metals Refinery in Accra has invested 32 billion cedis in its operations since it was established about a year ago. The company, the first of its kind in Ghana was set up to refine gold and silver for the local and international markets at the prompting of the Kufuor’s administration.

The private-owned refinery also has the backing of the German government, one of Ghana’s new allies in the quest for faster business development. Briefing newsmen on the operations of the company, Miss Juliet Amoah, Public Relations Officer said that so far, PMR with a staff of 33 people plans to increase to 50 billion cedis by the end of the year.

The initial amount she explained was spent in purchasing high tech laboratory equipment, setting up a refinery chain and purchasing gold and photochemical solutions for silver production. The company has also accepted the challenge of bringing small entrepreneurs into the mainstream of good environment management.

As part of efforts, a first batch of special jars, called retorts, were imported last year from a German sister company, Metal Technique, to ensure the safe burning of mercury. The French Embassy paid for the batch of special jars and a second consignment would be presented later this year.

According to Miss Amoah, the use of mercury in small scale mining though, hazardous, was presently inevitable. She said that a substitute for this gold-extraction chemical, mercury was far from being found although global research efforts were being invested in that direction.

However, environmental pollution from mercury could be considerably reduced, or even eliminated when the amalgams were burnt in retorts and the wastes properly disposed of. The company aims at becoming the leading gold buyer and exporter in the next couple of years and has embarked on a strategic development plan to be implemented across the whole of Africa.