Ghana needs to develop aggressive strategies to reposition itself in order to maintain its pre-eminent position in gold production in West Africa, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, has stated.
According to the Chamber, Ghana needs a comprehensive and sustainable exploration strategy to ensure that new mines were developed and opened to further increase the contribution of mines to national development agenda.
Mr Sulemanu Koney, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, stated these at a workshop for media practitioners in the Ashanti region, in Kumasi.
He said Ghana was endowed with huge quantities of gold ore and there was the need to develop deliberate strategies to encourage both local and international investments to explore and develop.
My Koney stressed that mining had and continued to make huge contribution to the socio-economic development of the country, especially in revenue generation, employment and community infrastructure development.
He said the mining industry was currently the leader in the purchase and supply of local goods adding that, there were about 19 items mining companies were required to purchase from the local market.
Mr Koney mentioned high taxes, high energy cost, environmental destruction by illegal miners, irregular disbursement of royalties to communities, inefficient utilization of mineral revenue and others, as some of the challenges facing the mining industry.
He called on the government to take a second look at the taxes in the mining sector and device strategies that would encourage more Ghanaians to invest in the mining sector to increase local participation.
Source: GNA
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