GHANA will commission its first large-scale greenfield mine in more than a decade in November, with expected annual production of more than 350,000 ounces.
Martin Ayisi, head of Ghana’s mining regulator, told Reuters that three other new mines, including a lithium project, will come onstream by 2026. This will be a boost the West Africa nation’s minerals production and quicken a recovery from its worst economic crisis in a generation, the newswire said.
The Cardinal Namdini mine is owned by Cardinal Resources, a unit of Shandong Gold which received a licence for the facility in 2020.
Ghana, the world’s number two cocoa producer, has seen gold exploration slump over the past decade, limiting new projects and lowering output from big miners, said Reuters. Ghana last commissioned a large-scale greenfield mine in 2013 when miner Newmont launched its Akyem site in southeastern Ghana, it said.
Since then, “exploration took a nosedive”, Ayisi said, but “we will now have commissioning galore”.
“First is Cardinal Namdini, which is a monster mine and it will produce an average of 358,000 ounces per year. Mid-year 2025, Newmont will commission another monster mine – Ahafo North,” he added.
Two mines would add at least 600,000 oz of gold to Ghana’s annual output while bolstering economic growth and creating hundreds of jobs, said Ayisi.
Ghana mined 4.03 million oz of gold in 2023, driven largely by increased output from small-scale and artisanal miners.
Ayisi said another two new mines – a gold mine by Azumah Resources in northwestern Ghana along the border with Burkina Faso, and the country’s first lithium project, owned by Atlantic Lithium – will start production in 2026.
