Top Africa Gold Producer Taps Small Mines For Refinery
- Country’s new refinery will source gold from small mines
- Gold has been mined in present-day Ghana for centuries
Gold casting grain is scooped from the water to cool during the refining process.
Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Ghana, Africa’s biggest gold producer, opened a new refinery in a bid to reap more value from its natural resources.
The Royal Ghana Gold Refinery aims to refine 400 kilograms of gold a day, sourcing the raw material mainly from artisanal and small-scale mines, which officially account for a third of Ghana’s output of about 4 million ounces a year. There’s also a large but unknown amount of gold that’s illegally produced by miners locally known as ‘galamsey,’ who smuggle their output out of Ghana.