The Ghana Chamber of Mines says it is adopting innovative approaches to sustain gold production to rake in more revenue from export.
Gold prices saw a sharp rise in prices during the early stages of the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic due to low supply, as economic activities slowed down.
As at June 4, 2020, gold prices hit 1,715 dollars an ounce.
This was due to the fact that investment in gold is seen as a safe haven during uncertainties.
Speaking to Citi Business News on how the mining sector performed in 2019, the Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber of Mines, Sulemanu Konney, said mining companies are adopting innovative means to continue gold production to increase revenue for the state.
“…Because we are observing the various protocols, we cannot have everybody on the market. So, we have to find creative means of working with fewer numbers so that we can observe social distancing and the other measures. At the Chamber Secretariat, we are not working full throttle. We are working on a lean roster. It is not everyone who comes to work every day.”
“A similar thing is happening elsewhere, and on the mines as well because we want to reduce the human interaction and the number of people. For example, we need to cut down on the large numbers of people who go to the cafeteria. So, these are the initiatives we have come up with to reduce the spread, but at the same time being creative in ensuring that it doesn’t adversely affect production as well,” he said.
Gold output from large-scale mining sector up six percent for 2019
According to the annual report of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, gold output from the large-scale mining sector increased six percent to 2.989 million ounces in 2019 from 2.807 million ounces in 2018,
During the period, small-scale production decreased to 1.588 million ounces in 2019 from 1.984 million ounces in 2018.
Effects of COVID-19
As the novel Coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, persons with the disease have been quarantined to in a bid to curb the spread.
Business activities globally continue to witness a dip as they run into huge financial losses. The airline industry is one of the hardest hit with airlines losing billions of dollars due to a huge drop in bookings.
In Ghana, the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority has lost almost 95% of its revenue due to the COVID-19 induced ban on international passenger travel.
In the wake of the pandemic, Twitter told its employees to work from home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. The company also said it was “strongly encouraging” all of its 5,000 employees around the world not to come to work.
Currently, Ghana has recorded 12,590 cases, 66 deaths and 4,410 recoveries.
Source: Citibusiness