The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources in collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Securities and Exchange Commission, is set to list large-scale mining companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of a two-day Natural Resources Stakeholder Dialogue, organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited, in partnership with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on Thursday.
He disclosed that the Asante Gold Corporation is already listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange and several other mining companies are in the process of doing the same.
He indicated that local content and local participation in the mining industry, has seen an increase in the items on the Local Procurement List of goods and services reserved for Ghanaians from 29 in 2018 to 50 this year.
He announced that three new large-scale mining operations have been scheduled to start production within the next two years, including Newmont Ahafo North in the Ahafo Region, Azumah Resources in the Upper West Region and Cardinal Namdini in the Upper East Region.
According to Mr Jinapor, natural resources management has gone beyond protection and exploitation to issues of sustainability, environmental protection, mitigating climate crisis and ensuring optimal benefit for the owners of the resources.
He stated that stringent measures have been put in place to cordon off and protect the country’s forest resources from attacks by illegal miners, illegal loggers, agricultural expansionists and other drivers of deforestation and forest degradation.
“The government is putting in place the necessary building blocks to construct, in our country, a viable, sustainable, effective, efficient and environmentally-sound natural resources sector that generates employment and contributes, meaningfully to the development of our country,” he stressed.
The Minister described the dialogue as timely and expressed the hope that it would enable stakeholders to “forge a common path to manage sustainably our natural resources, add value to them, retain the highest end of the industry, contribute to the national economy, whilst, at the same time, protecting our environment for our collective good.”