Referring to the current impasse between Gold Fields Ghana Limited and the Mine-workers Union, the Tamale South Member of Parliament said much needed to be done to set the mining industry on the right path.

He was contributing to a statement on the floor of Parliament by MP for Abirem, Johnny Osei Frimpong on the Mining Development Act.

[contextly_sidebar id=”geAGXPGfbNaZWIXOZNFgzAssckuFRMto”]“The Parliament of Ghana over the years has slept on this constitutional onerous responsibility in ratifying Parliamentary agreements and we must be seen doing so because we owe it a duty to mining communities for the mining companies to develop them. Indeed, as I’m speaking Mr. Speaker, the mining industry in Ghana is in a near crisis. I know what is happening to Gold Fields, we know what has happened to takeovers and the amalgamation but many of them Parliament is not even apprised.”

“The mining industry used to be a major employer but it is not the case today. Yet we continue exporting gold. Can’t we process our own gold in order to find value? Mr. Speaker, I’ve repeated myself several times on this matter – if you want to cure a depreciating cedi or an epileptic cedi against major currencies, the solution lies in expanded exports,” he added.

Protest over announced layoffs 

Gold Fields Ghana Limited in December 2017 announced that it is changing its operational strategy from owner mining to contract mining.

The situation is leading to the laying off of some 1,500 workers at its Tarkwa mine in the Western Region.

The decision has been heavily resisted by the Ghana Mine Workers’ Union which has accused the company of acting in bad faith leading to a demonstration on Monday, March 12, 2018.

This was after the Union’s attempt to get the company to reverse its decision in court failed.

Gov’t intervenes after workers’ protest

Meanwhile, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show said government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with aggrieved workers over the issue.

According to him, the MoU was aimed at ensuring that the affected workers are re-engaged under the new arrangement.

“Yesterday [ Monday], we had a very extensive meeting together with the Ministry of Labour and the Union executives to resolve this issue. So we have resolved and signed some Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and union. So that is what we are doing to ensure that we bring this issue to a halt,” the Minister added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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According to the treasurer of the association, Dr. Abu Grant, the Minerals Commission needs to be steadfast in its operations, in order to stop the leakage of gold revenue from Ghana.

His comments follow the disclosure that about $5 billion dollars’ worth of gold exports from Ghana to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), were unaccounted for.

Speaking to Citi Business News, Dr. Abu Grant stated that enforcement of the law will protect the country from further losses.

“The Minerals Commission needs to be steadfast and make sure the systems they’ve put in place are not abused. Everything that has to be done to prevent gold revenue losses has already been done. Every licensed gold exporter has at least two to three weeks to repatriate the proceeds after exporting gold. If you flout the repatriation rules and you want to export you should face some difficulty,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Dr. Grant has blamed the previous board of Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) for its role in the loss of revenue from gold exports in recent times.

“We know that through the PMMC a lot of people have exported gold without repatriating back the proceeds. A lot of Indians back then were exporting a lot of gold through the PMMC without returning the proceeds. I definitely blame the previous management of PMMC. They created all the loopholes that people are taking advantage of”, he alleged.

Revenue leakages in gold export

In September 2017, it emerged that the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), at the time, could not trace most of the companies involved in the export of $2.3 billion worth of gold in 2016.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service begun a probe into the matter which was said to involve about 145 companies.

The PMMC, which got its license revoked by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in September, was mandated to oversee the export of gold from the small-scale mining sector.

The law requires at least 80 percent of foreign currency earned from exports to be repatriated into the country.

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By: Bobbie Osei/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

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According to him, government is working on a regulation that will give some state agencies the power to check and inspect total production of oil and gold before it leaves the country.

Speaking at the 69th Annual New Year School and Conference at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Dr. Bawumia bemoaned the practice where the nation is shortchanged in its natural resources.

“We are going to demand a transparent accounting of our natural resources that we are exporting.  For the most part, we are just told, we are exporting this amount of gold. How sure are we that is the amount of gold that is been exported. We have been told we exported so much of oil, how sure are we, that that is really the amount of oil that is coming out?” he queried.

Dr. Bawumia maintained that government will independently vet figures presented by oil and gold companies to make sure it corresponds with the actual situation on the ground.

“We are going to insist on a transparent accounting for our natural resources. We are coming out with some kind of regulations on this soon. In other countries for example, it’s really in the control of government until you export it, so that we know what it is. So we are going to talk with the mining companies and the oil companies,” he stressed.

He was optimistic the exercise will be a useful one that will help Ghana block leakages that result in the country losing its natural resources through export.

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By: Lawrence Segbefia/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana

The post Gov’t to critically vet gold, oil before export appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Researchers last year detected 3 tonnes of silver and 43 kg of gold in effluent and sludge from waste water treatment plants – amounting to around 3 million Swiss francs ($3.1 million).

But before people start hunting in their drains for jewellery, the government study said the tiny particles were likely to be mostly from the watchmaking, pharmaceuticals and chemical industries, which use the metals in their products and processes.

“You hear stories about an angry man or woman throwing jewellery down the toilet, but we didn’t find any rings, unfortunately,” report author Bas Vriens said on Thursday.

“The levels of gold or silver were very small, in the micrograms, or even nanograms, but when you add them up it’s pretty substantial.”

Researchers are now studying if it is worthwhile to extract the metals that end up in sewage sludge before usually being burnt, but so far it has not found to be cost-effective.

Higher levels of gold were found in the western Swiss region of Jura, believed to be linked to watchmakers that use the precious metal to decorate their expensive timepieces.

There was also a higher concentration in the southern canton of Ticino due to the gold refineries in the area. This was the only region where it might make sense to recover the metals, Vriens said.

Other trace elements including rare metals such as gadolinium – used in medical imaging – were also found by the scientists from the government’s Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (EAWAG).

Their discovery is the latest example of wealthy Switzerland finding riches in unusual places.

Last month an investigation was launched after toilets at a Geneva bank and three restaurants were blocked by about $100,000 in high-denomination banknotes – a bit different from the huge fat mass that blocked an east London sewer.

The Swiss metal concentrations complied with regulations and were removed before humans drank the water again, the study said.

“It wouldn’t make sense for people to boil their tap water to recover gold or silver because it has already been filtered out before it re-enters the drinking water supply,” Vriens said.

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Source: Reuters

The post Swiss flushed away about $3.1m in gold and silver in 2016 appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

He also called for those responsible for the loss of revenue to the country to be named and punished.

[contextly_sidebar id=”HbDvZyYBZulfrJ4QPgdsZEfPJRR4j51b”]The Daily Statesman Newspaper reported on Wednesday that proceeds from the almost two-and-half billion dollar exports were not repatriated, thus “enriching unscrupulous foreign gold dealers, mainly Indians and Chinese, and their Ghanaian collaborators” in the process.

The paper also alleged that officials in the Mahama administration under whose tenure the loss was incurred, had allowed the illegality because they were beneficiaries of the scam.

According to Ali Nakyea, anyone found to have been involved in the scam, should be sanctioned, and that efforts should be made to recover the lost funds.

“Illicit financial flow is not only the trade mis-pricing, bribery and corruption is also one. If you bring in items valued at one million and falsify the documents to read 300, 000, we are losing a tax element there. This is why the paperless system is welcome because you can’t falsify a document as there aren’t documents,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show.

“We have to make sure that any person found culpable does not stay in there. I believe in finding where the loss is, recovering the money and punishing the person. We need to recover first before we punish. We should just name and shame. We need to name, recover and punish; and these three make it shameful.”

“The various causes of illicit financial flow, trade mis-pricing, bribery and corruption and transfer pricing, are areas we should pay attention to so that we get enough to ensure that our tax system works…If the report is now out, I will be interested in how they can follow up and make sure we receive these monies. If indeed the gold moved out then we should get the compensation and the payment. ”

‘Institutions should liaise’

Ali Nakyea expressed his frustration with the apparent lack of records detailing the country’s gold exports.

He insisted that Ghana may not have applied for a bailout from the IMF had the proceeds from the exports been repatriated, potentially making Ghana a net-creditor.

“I’m not surprised about the amount because it was published on the front page of the Daily Graphic that the Swiss Government indicated that they imported 20 billion cedis worth of gold from Ghana in 2016. My question at the time was, what is the record of receipt in Bank of Ghana and the record of export of gold with the Minerals Commission. We need to get these institutions to liaise and reconcile their figures,” he said.

“My other worry is, we have a trade attaché in our mission to Switzerland, what is he also checking and reporting back to us? Institutionally, we need to collaborate and check our records. If there are illicit flows, we’ll see clearly that with what we are losing, if accounted for, we don’t need to borrow. If we are going out for $938m over a three year period [from IMF] and we are losing billions in a year, then we [could have been] net creditors and we didn’t need to borrow.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Recover lost gold export proceeds, punish culprits – Ali Nakyea appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Kwabena Mensah, and Akwasi Agyei, are facing separate charges of stealing and dishonestly receiving, respectively.

The former pleaded guilty while the latter denied the crime.

The pair would make their next appearance on Thursday, August 31.

Police Detective Inspector Emmanuel Nyamekye told the court, presided over by Ms. Lydia Osei Marfo, that the said gold had been sent to the priestess of the shrine for spiritual purification by a certain man on July 31.

Mensah overheard the discussion between the man and the priestess, who happens to be his sister and went to steal the gold later.

The prosecution said he gave the stolen precious mineral to Agyei for safe-keeping.

On August 06, the owner, returned to collect the gold from the shrine only for the priestess to discover that it was missing.

Suspecting Mensah of the crime, she reported him to the Wiamoase police and he was arrested.

He confessed to stealing the gold and told police investigators that he had given it to Agyei for safe-keeping and he was also arrested.

Agyei admitted receiving the gold but refused to return it, the prosecution added.

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Source: GNA

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When you hear the name Prestea, how does it sound in your ears? A beautiful golden city with shining lights and good roads? Well, in the town’s current state, that’s a big illusion! Prestea and its adjourning communities are home to one of the most terrible roads in the country. What a wow!

As I said earlier, the district at large is rich in gold. In 2016 alone, Golden Star Resources produced and sold 23,893 ounces of gold from the belly of the soil. That comes with some pretty cool taxes to the Ghanaian government for development. The usual direct and indirect taxes from the inhabitants in the districts, added to taxes paid to the state by registered small scale miners and all other monies, puts the district ahead of many districts financially across the country.

But apart from the only trunk road from Tarkwa – Bogoso to Ayamfuri, which construction completed in the last quarter of 2016, no other road in this supposed rich district is tarred.

Let’s start from Bogoso. Bogoso, another ‘golden City’, is the capital of the Prestea Huni-Valley District. Until recently when the Tarkwa-Bogoso Ayamfuri trunk road was completed, the capital itself had its main high streets slapped with potholes of different sizes.

When it rains slightly, all that is seen is mud. That construction has sort of elevated the image of Bogoso. But, it is from this portion that the beginning of a sad story is told of Prestea.

Less than 50 meters away from the Bogoso High street towards Prestea, are many unfriendly potholes on the road. The 23.4km stretch will take you some 50 minutes to an hour to travel amidst ‘dancing’.

This bad road network certainly comes at a cost to both drivers and passengers. For the drivers, mostly Taxis, you would have to change your car almost every year, if you really want to stay in business. Ask anybody from Prestea and its environs the number of 2014 to 2016 registered taxis that are still in operation in 2017; and how many of the passengers are willing to board those cars. Many of those cars have broken down and have been parked.

Those in operation are just too uncomfortable for use on that rickety road from Bogoso to Prestea. As a result, majority of the cars you see on that 23km distance are 2017 registered taxis.

That is for the road from Bogoso to Prestea. Let’s now come to the roads in Prestea Township.

In fact, it’s a shame and an indictment on central and local government authorities in this area. That a town that sits on plenty wealth has terrible high streets roads with intertwining potholes. It’s just a paradox of plenty, no matter how one looks at it. Here too, it gets worse with the slightest rainfall. Brothers and sisters, it’s an unpleasant and a disgraceful moment to be in Prestea when it rains. Mud is found everywhere, including the main high street to their lorry terminal. In fact, Prestea roads cannot be described by words, in view of what leaves that soil annually.

Currently, some works are being done on the town roads, but wait, what the hell is wrong with this country? What is the use of the training we have given engineering students at Legon and KNUST all these years, if we still construct such shameful 5th class roads in a strategic area like Prestea?

It’s shockingly terrifying! No! Help me here, what determines the type or quality of road for a particular area? The load that plies it? The profitability of the road, the intelligence of the road users, colour or race of users or what?

See, a certified popular contractor is engaged to bring some sanity to the roads in Prestea. It started somewhere in the latter part of 2015. It will interest you to know that 8 months after some snail pace work was done on some roads in parts of the town, potholes are everywhere. It’s appalling, so the contractor and the person who sat in his comfortable office to prescribe this 5th class road to be done in Prestea, ‘how be market’? God bless you!

Friends, I will not talk about the roads to Huni Valley, Oppong Valley, Nsuta where the recent collapsed Galamsey pit disaster occurred. Just see below this picture for yourself.

Before I rest my case; let me say thank you for reading, but share it with the contractor and the highways person responsible for Prestea roads. Tell him his good plans have stuck in his head for far too long.

Tell him the comfort in his air-conditioned car and office are from the monthly sweat of a Ghanaian, who believed in him to turn things around.

Tell him to act immediately, for previous directors behaved same until their retirement with questionable conscience. Tell him this old ways of doing things is uncharacteristic of people who want results. God is watching us all!

Lest I forget, Prestea is not in this alone; many of Ghana’s mining towns suffer same fate from Tarkwa to Obuasi, to Akwatia and others.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Obrempong writes: Prestea; a town of gold with ugly roads appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are all down by roughly 2% to 3% ahead of the open. Losses were more dramatic earlier in the night with Dow futures plunging more than 900 points.

Dow futures are now off by only about 300 points.

Investors are concerned about Trump’s unpredictable nature and anti-trade stance, which could result in global turmoil during his presidency. But there are hopes that President Trump will be different than candidate Trump.

“The first speech by President-elect Trump has had a calming effect on the markets,” said Kathleen Brooks, a research director at City Index in London. “Trump definitely sounded more presidential than he has done at any stage during the election campaign.”

It’s worth noting that regardless of which candidate wins, stocks typically sell off the day following an election. Case in point: The S&P 500 dropped just over 5% the day after President Obama was elected in 2008.

Looking abroad, European markets posted minor declines in early trading, with many indices down by 1% to 2%.

Asian markets closed out the day in the red. Tokyo’s Nikkei led the declines with a 5.4% loss.

The main Middle Eastern markets also declined by about 1%.

2. Peso plunge: The Mexican peso is getting clobbered in reaction to the U.S. election results.

At one point overnight, the peso was down as much as 11% versus the U.S. dollar, hitting an all-time low. It’s since recovered a bit but is still down by about 8% in early morning trading.

Mexico’s largest trade partner is the U.S. But Trump has attacked Mexico from Day 1 of his campaign and threatened to build a wall between the two countries. The peso is falling hard as traders fret about deteriorating relations between the countries.

3. Seeking a safe haven: Investors typically rush to invest in gold during times of market uncertainty. Today is no exception.

Gold prices rose by 3% as investors bought into the so-called safe haven asset.

The Swiss franc and Japanese yen also got a boost because they are viewed as steady rocks during times of turmoil.

Mining and pharmaceutical stocks were also performing well in Europe.

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Source: CNN

The post Wall Street panics over Trump presidency; Peso plunges; Gold surges appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Nollywood actress, Patience Ozokwo, aka Mama Gee, has finally reacted to the speculated affair between her and  Delta State-born politician, Michael Diden aka Ejele.

Source: Nigeriaflims

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