Ghana

Ghana is the second largest gold producer in Africa with eight mines in production. The favourable gold price environment has re-invigorated the gold mining sector in Ghana with multiple new projects under construction. The major gold producers are Gold Fields Ghana Ltd., AngloGold Ashanti, Golden Star Resources, Kinross Gold Corporation and Newmont Ghana Gold.

  • Stable governmental system since Ghana became a British colony
  • Rated as an investment grade country
  • Favourable mining and tax code
  • Import taxation excluded on equipment for foreign mining companies
  • Excellent infrastructure (electricity, roads and access to natural gas)
  • Available well trained labour force

The Republic of Ghana is located in West Africa and faces the Gulf of Guinea. The country covers 239,000 square kilometres with an estimated population of about 19 million. The capital, Accra, is a coastal city with a population estimated to be at least 2.6 million. The country lies just north of the equator and experiences a tropical climate. Annual rainfall in the southern third of the country approaches 1500-2000 mm/year producing lush tropical vegetation, including widespread but declining semi-deciduous hardwood forests. A plateau region in the southwest lies behind the densely populated southern coastal plains which are lined with lagoons

Regional Geology

The regional geology of southern Ghana is comprised of thick sequences of steeply dipping metasediments, alternating with metavolcanic units of Proterozoic age (~2.2-2.3 Ga). These sequences, which belong to the Birimian Supergroup, extended approximately 200 kilometres ("km") along strike, in a number of northeasterly trending gold belts (Figure 1). The four (4) main gold belts in Southern Ghana are:

  • Winneba Kibi Gold Belt
  • Ashanti Gold Belt
  • Asankrangwa Gold Belt
  • Sefwi Gold Belt

Syn and post-tectonic granitoids intruded both the metasediments and metavolcanics of the Birimian Supergroup as a result of the Eburnean Orogeny. The granitoids can be broadly grouped into two types; namely Basin and Belt types. Basin granitoids intrude the metasedimentary basin whereas Belt type intrudes the volcanic and volcanosedimentary assemblages.