A technical committee comprising the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission and the Chamber of Mines have inspected Ghana’s newest gold refinery called the Royal Ghana Gold.

Speaking to Joy Business, Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, George Mireku Duker, said when the refinery - which has a capacity of refining 300 kilogrammes of refined 24 karat gold per day is certified - will complement Ghana’s position as a leading producer and gold refinery in the world.

“It is good news for us as a country to have a refinery of that stature. It’s going to inject more finance into the economy.”

“It will create employment in the natural resource economy and propel us as one of the leading producers and gold refineries in Africa,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Chamber of Mines has raised concerns over the lack of technology transfer to enable Ghana independently refine its gold.

It comes as majority of experts manning the Royal Ghana Gold refinery are expatriates. Chief Executive of the Chamber of Mines, Suleman Koney told Joy Business the narrative must change.

“The reality is that expatriates cost more money. It will be in the interest of the refinery to train more Ghanaians to be able to do it”.

“We have a lot of manpower but unfortunately we don’t have the technology to refine gold. We hope in the next few years, when production dates, we should have a plan with the minerals commission for technology transfer,” he told Joy Business.

Royal Ghana Gold Limited is a Joint-Venture with PMMC (Government of Ghana).

The gold refinery to be located in Accra will produce gold bullion bars.

The gold refinery will be made up of world-class equipment, keeping in mind the LBMA standards.

Full scale production is expected to commence in August.