ACCRA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Ghana's gold output rose 4
percent to 2.6 million ounces in 2008, and higher prices pushed
overall mining revenues to $2.3 billion, up 28 percent on 2007,
Ghana Chamber of Mines data showed on Friday.
Manganese and bauxite shipments both fell by 7 percent, but
revenue from the two minerals rose by 42.6 percent and 0.6
percent respectively, the data showed.
Ghana is Africa's second biggest gold miner after South
Africa. It produced nearly 2.5 million ounces of the metal in
2007, when total mining revenues were $1.8 billion.
Gold accounted for more than 95 percent of Ghana's mineral
revenues last year.
The Chamber said cash costs of gold mining companies were
$651 per ounce in 2008, and the aggregated realised gold price
was $852 per ounce.
Gold, which many investors see as a safe store of value
during a downturn, benefited from rapidly deteriorating
economic conditions in 2008, and analysts expect prices to
remain strong this year as major economies shrink.
Spot bullion traded around $922 per ounce in late
business in London on Friday, up 5 percent since the start of
2009.
Ghana is yet to fully recover from a power crisis that
began in August 2006, leading to a reduction in electricity
supply by 50 percent to big users including gold miners, who
responded by building their own power generation facilities.
'We are having to continue to grapple with high production
cost, mainly due to high power and fuel cost in our
operations,' said Anthony Aubynn, corporate affairs director
for the Ghanaian operations of South African miner Gold Fields .
Following are gold output figures detailed by companies in
ounces:
Company 2008 2007
Gold Fields Tarkwa 659,308 654,352
Newmont Ghana 524,000 454,212