Asomah-Cheremeh (3rd left) receiving a cheque from the mining company
Chirano Gold Mines Limited, a subsidiary of Kinross Gold Corporation, has paid $13 million, equivalent to GH¢61,887,800, as dividend to the Government of Ghana for the 2017 fiscal year.
The company paid the dividend to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources on Thursday in Accra following what it described as “strong operational performance.”
Government of Ghana has a 10 percent carried interest in Chirano Gold Mines Limited.
Making the presentation, Vice President and General Manager of Kinross Chirano, Adriano Sobreira, said the payment of the dividend for 2017 was approved by the Board of Directors of the mining company.
He said there is a representative of the Government of Ghana on the Board of Directors and that the approval was done on September 14, 2018.
“We are proud to pay this $13 million dividend to the Government of Ghana. It illustrates our capacity to create and deliver value for our shareholders, our host countries and local communities,” he said.
According to him, “This dividend represents only part of the significant contributions Kinross has made to local communities and the development of the Ghanaian economy, with more than US$1.8 billion spent in the country since 2011.”
From 2011 to 2017, he asserted, the company contributed approximately $400 million to the Ghanaian economy through taxes and royalties paid to the government, and $257 million through wages and salaries paid to employees, approximately 98 percent of whom are Ghanaians.
The company, he said, has also provided numerous business opportunities to local contractors, with nearly $1.2 billion spent on goods and services since 2011.
It said 73 percent of all procurement at Chirano was conducted in the country in 2017.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, commended the company for the gesture, urging other companies to emulate it.
He said that the Auditor General’s Report of 2014 showed that from 2005 to 2015, only four out of 22 mining companies paid dividends to the government of Ghana.
He, therefore, urged mining companies in Ghana to comply with the country’s mining laws.
By Melvin Tarlue