Dr Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana, BoG said the Central Bank had seen an increase in its gold reserves this year.
He said by June 30, the BoG had added more than 7.70 tonnes of monetary gold to its gold reserves of which the mining firms accounted for about 80 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent was from the artisanal small-scale mining sector through an approved aggregator.
“I am happy to announce that since the inception of the DGPP programme in June 2021, the Bank has added over 7.70 tonnes of monetary gold to the gold reserves as of June 30, 2023, of which the mining firms accounted for about 80 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent was from the ASM sector via an approved aggregator,” He said.
Indeed, we are on course to more than double the level of the central bank’s gold reserves by the end of this year, well ahead of the target initially set. “
He said the increment was made through the domestic gold purchase program introduced in 2021 to increase the central bank’s gold reserves by purchasing domestically produced gold using the local currency.
He was speaking at the fourth edition of the Ghana Gold Expo and Mining Week held on the theme, Sustainable Mineral resources development and Well-being of mining communities in Takoradi.
” Through the mining firms’ channel, the Bank engages the domestic mining firms in collaboration with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to buy pre-agreed quantities of refined gold at their LBMA-certified refineries using the local currency,” Mr Addison added.
” Under the aggregator channel, Dore gold is purchased from identifiable, responsible, and sustainable gold mines through an approved gold aggregator. The purchased Dore gold from the domestic mines is then assayed by the PMMC, the official government assayer. The validated Dore gold purchases are then stored in the Bank’s vault and intermittently shipped to an LBMA-certified refinery to upgrade the Dore gold to the required international standard of good delivery (with a fineness of 99.99%) in order to be counted as part of the Bank’s gold reserves.”
” The third and final channel is where the Dore gold is purchased from licensed small-scale miners through PMMC for the Gold for Oil programme. The purchased Dore gold is used for the payment of oil supplied to Ghana,”
