Fact check: Royal Ghana Gold Refinery is not Ghana’s first gold refinery
On August 8, 2024, the government celebrated the opening of the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery as a significant milestone in its efforts to add value to the country’s mineral resources.
The refinery, which can process 400 kilograms of gold per day, is a joint venture between Rosy Royal Minerals of India and Ghana’s central bank, which holds a 20% stake.
During the commissioning ceremony, Vice President Bawumia emphasized the potential of the refinery to boost local job creation, retain more economic value within Ghana, and strengthen the national currency.
He also highlighted the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP), launched in 2021, as part of the government’s broader strategy to position Ghana as Africa’s gold hub.
Reuters earlier reported that Ghana has launched its first commercial gold refinery in Accra, marking a significant step in the country’s effort to add value to its gold production and increase national revenue.
Reuters later amended its story with the headline “Ghana opens new gold refinery with 20% government stake.”
Ventures Africa reported the story with the headline “Ghana’s first gold refinery has been a long time coming”.
Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised critical concerns about the recently commissioned Royal Ghana Gold Refinery in Accra
Simons pointed out that this is not the first time Ghana has commissioned a gold refinery, contrary to international reports. He also pointed out that the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) was originally established in Ghana to lead such initiatives and suggested that government policy should focus on helping PMMC succeed in this area.
Gold refineries existent in Ghana, he said included Asap Vasa, Sahara Royal Gold Refinery, and Gold Coast Refinery in 2016.
Following his remarks in a post on X dated August 9, 2024, The Independent Ghana (TIGPost) carried out some checks to validate the remarks made by Mr Simons.
Our findings corroborate the comments made by Mr Simons. A number of gold refineries existed before Royal Ghana Gold Refinery.
A brief look at some of these refineries.
Sahara Royal Gold Refinery (2012)
Established in August 2012, Sahara Royal Gold Refinery is a limited liability company with the purpose of setting up gold and silver refinery and manufacturing jewellery. Primarily to refine gold and silver produced in Ghana for sale to the local and international markets.
On its website, the profile reads “We are a renowned and innovative company devoted to helping gold miners, prospectors, jewellers, and refiners of all sizes to refine gold, silver and other precious metals safely, efficiently, and with ease. Our company is establishing high standards in the precious metals refining industry for safety, pollution control and efficiency within 3 years of establishment.”
Asap Vasa Co. Ltd. (Gold Refinery)
Asap Vasa is a Government of Ghana licensed Gold Refinery registered in Ghana with registration ID CA-13,017. It operates as a limited liability company limited by shares.
The company, located at Mataheko, refines gold for the local and international gold markets. Asap Vasa has an initial installed refining capacity of 500 kgs of gold per month.
The company purchases gold primarily from the small-scale mining sector.
B&FT reported that as of January 2015, Asap Vasa Company Limited — a multi-million dollar high-capacity refinery plant — is the only major gold refinery plant in the country, operating and refining 100 kilogrammes of gold daily into granules, coins and bars, and it is owned by four young Ghanaian entrepreneurs.
Gold Coast Refinery (2016)
Gold Coast Refinery, on its website, says it is the first state-of-the-art Gold Refinery in West Africa and the second largest in Africa, with the capacity of refining up to 480 Kg of gold a day .
Gold Coast Refinery was established in 2016 as a subsidiary of the well-established Euroget Group.
The company’s profile further reads, “Gold Coast Refinery deems it a strategic responsibility to ensure its support for legal and sound extractive practices to promote sustainable development. The company takes into consideration the importance of the environment, making use of every raw material and operating under very friendly, safe and healthy conditions. The company has engaged the services of an international firm to develop environmentally sustainable models for skilled craft miners (Small and medium enterprises)”.
The findings prove that the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery is not Ghana’s first gold refinery.
Despite these earlier initiatives, the country continues to grapple with the same challenges in achieving real value addition in the gold sector.
Further investigations carried out by our media house revealed that the Akufo-Addo-led government had earmarked August 2022 for the commissioning of the recently commissioned refinery.
In June 2022, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, responsible for Mines, George Mireku Duker disclosed that Ghana’s newly constructed Gold Refinery, Royal Gold Ghana is set and ready to be commissioned by August 2022 by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The Deputy Minister made this known when he paid a working visit on behalf of the Sector Minister, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor to inspect the Refinery at the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) premises in Accra, on Tuesday, 28th June, 2022.
The reason for the two-year delay is yet to be made public.
Royal Ghana Gold Refinery
Found in 2018, Royal Ghana Gold Limited (RGG) in a joint venture with PMMC (Government of Ghana) commences operations of the state-of-the-art Gold refinery in Accra (Ghana) to produce Gold Bullion bars. Launching the ‘first-ever’ Public-Private Partnership in the Gold refining ecosystem globally, RGG finds approval and support from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana.
On its website, the company says “RGG refinery comes with the latest high-end technology in line to offer the world bullion market the LBMA-standard gold and silver bullion. With an array of custom-made products and service portfolio to choose from, RGG stands tall with its state-of-art precious metal refinery, offering its customers a world-class facility to bank upon.”
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