In the last two years, the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Limited has assayed (valued) a total of about $12 billion worth of gold for both Artisanal Small-scale Miners (ASMs) and the Large Scale Mining firms.

Under the government’s new assaying regime, which gives PMMC the authority to value all gold before export, it tested, graded, weighed and certified about 122,946.5444 kilogrammes of gold.

Mr Venance Dey, the Deputy Managing Director of PMMC, who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the ASMs alone exported about $4.8 billion.

Large Scale Mining firms thus exported $7.2 billion dollars.

The ASM production figure in 2018 was about $2.6 billion, while that of 2019 was worth about $2.2billion.

The assaying process, sanctioned by the government, is relevant for the effective tracking of minerals that leave the country to ensure proper accountability and transparency for the Government to receive its fair due in taxes.

A media report in February 2018, for instance, highlighted a case where some Saudi officials acknowledged gold imports from Ghana as being more than $4 billion; however, records in Ghana showed only $2 billion.

Before 2018, gold mined by the Large Scale Mining firms did not go through the assaying process by any government institution before being exported.

Mr Dey lauded the establishment of the assaying centre, saying it had helped to streamline the system and was also compelling licensed gold exporters to show their 80 per cent repatriation of value in dollar terms.

“Once the companies export gold they must show on their bank statement that 80 per cent of the money they earned had been transferred back to Ghana in dollar terms,” he explained.

On the non-payment of the withholding tax, he said, the PMMC was in consultation with Ghana Revenue Authority and other stakeholders to find avenues to ensure the ASMs paid the three per cent tax on the gold they produced.

In line with the Government’s plans to process 30 per cent of its gold ore, Mr Dey said a PMMC through a public-private partnership initiative, was building a refinery to add value to the gold before it was exported.

The PMMC through is the company charged with the responsibility, to grade, assay, value and process precious minerals.

It also through its subsidiary company, PMMC Jewellery Ltd, produces jewellery locally for sale in Ghana and overseas.