Ghana Export Promotion Authority stresses for Alumina refinery

Ghana is home to three out of the four stages in producing aluminium. Only the alumina refining stage does not take place in Ghana. The rest, namely bauxite mining, aluminium smelter producing ingots and the casting of aluminium ingots into sheets, coils and profiles, take place here.

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has highlighted the need for the country to establish an alumina refinery plant to process raw bauxite and create an integrated aluminium industry.

The establishment of the alumina refinery would inflate the country's revenue earnings from the mineral and also open up an industry that would create jobs, businesses and entrepreneurs.

An observation followed by the export facilitation body that the country was earning less from its large deposits of bauxite materials due to the unavailability of a plant to process the bauxite for the local and export market.

“The government needed to expedite negotiations with foreign investors, particularly Sinohydro of China, on the establishment of a bauxite refinery within the planned time frame to help add value to the bauxite and raise export earnings from the metal,” GEPA explained.