Gold overtakes cocoa as Ghana's leading export earner

Ghana recorded a significant increase in all mineral productions in 2005 with gold taking over from cocoa as the leading foreign exchange earner for the country, Ghana News Agency reported on Saturday.

Mineral revenue went up from 798 million U.S. dollars in 2004 to 995.2 million dollars in 2005, contributing about 13 percent of the total collection of Internal Revenue Service in the year under review, said the report.

Gold production recorded an increase of 63 percent from 1,794, 497 ounces in 2004 to 2,029,218 ounces in 2005 with its export revenue increasing from 731.2 million dollars to 903.9 million dollars.

These were contained in the 2005 annual report of the Chamber of Mines released at its 78th Annual General Meeting held in Accra under the theme; "The Impact of Mining on Local Economy."

The Report said bauxite revenue increased from 11.9 million dollars in 2004 to 18.1 million dollars in 2005, while diamond rose from 26 million dollars to 34.7 million dollars.

Manganese exports realized 39.1 million dollars in 2005, up from 30.2 million dollars the previous year.

Despite the increase in production and revenues, the mining industry witnessed extremely high input prices particularly for diesel fuel, sodium cyanide and earth moving equipment tyres, said Mike M. Ezan, head of the chamber.

According to him, the high input prices dampened what could have been an impressive year for the global mining industry in general and Ghana in particular.

He said the mining companies for the 2005, returned about 48 per cent of their export earnings to the country to support their operation and also to fulfill their retention obligation to the Bank of Ghana.

Source: Xinhua