The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon Samuel A Jinapor has underscored the importance of Ghana-South African relations and called for the urgent need for the two countries to collaborate and strengthen the bargaining position on gold pricing inorder to get a competitive pricing for gold on the international market for their benefits.
The Lands Minister maintained that "Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire are responsible for 60% of cocoa output and the two countries have worked closely to secure what we call the floor price of cocoa and therefore today there is a minimum price level regardless of what happens at the International stage where cocoa cannot be sold below a certain price".
He further indicated that Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire are taking a step further and working jointly to get the International community to take out the issue of premium.
READ ALSO: Minicom apprises South African delegation on mining regulations
The Minister stated this when a high level delegation from South African called on him to among other things exchange ideas and best practices on the mining sector particularly small-scale mining operations.
Hon. Jinapor was of the view that the move by Ghana and Cote d'ivoire in the cocoa industry could be replicated by Ghana and South African in the gold sector.
The Ghanaian government, the Minister said, is doing all it can to come to grips with illegal mining activities known in Ghana as galamsey, in Australia as Prospecting and in South Africa as Zama zamas and charged his technical team to consider the governance structure of the South African delegation since their system is fused from the get go sighting the head of their committee as a Major General concluding that theirs is a broad sectoral nature.
On her part, Major General Zulu the leader of the delegation applauded Ghana for allowing her country's top principals to engage them while they are on their knowledge sharing tour in the country adding that the President of the Republic of South Africa tasked them to use Ghana as benchmark to yield broader results.
She further stressed that Ghana's small-scale mining sector is focused on improving the lives of the community as well as the economic sector.
Ghana and South Africa are leading producers of gold in Africa and relations between the two countries dates back to pre-colonial times as both countries are members of African Union and the Commonwealth of nations.