CAPE TOWN Feb 9 (Reuters) – Ghana, Africa’s
second-largest gold mining state, has set up a committee to
review stability investment agreements with mining houses, a
senior government official said on Thursday.
“It will include all companies that have stability
agreements,” Benjamin Aryee, the chief executive of Ghana’s
Minerals Commission, told Reuters on the sidelines of an
industry conference in Cape Town.
“Ghana believes in the sanctity of contracts. But in all
contracts there are review provisions,” he said.
Ghana’s Finance Minister initially unveiled the plan to
review mining stability agreements in October. The government
has since detailed plans to raise the corporate mining tax to 35
percent from 25 percent and introduce a 10 percent windfall tax
as well to boost the state share of revenues.
The country set up a committee to review and renegotiate
mining contracts last week.
Mining companies that have had stability agreements in Ghana
include South African-based AngloGold Ashanti, the
world’s third largest gold producer.
Gold Fields, the world’s fourth largest gold
producer company, has said such a move might kill planned
projects that could bring $1 billion of investment into the West
African nation.
Ghana’s review comes against the backdrop of a surge of
resource nationalism across Africa as governments aim to extract
move revenue from a sector that has failed to translate mineral
wealth into broad posperity.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard, editing by Richard Valdmanis)
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