Monitoring Role Hampers PMMC

The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) says it cannot raise the much-needed capital from the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) to boost its operations because of the monitoring role it plays in the country’s small-scale mining industry.

Speaking to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in an interview Wednesday in Accra, R.D. Damptey, Managing Director of PMMC, noted that PMMC monitors the export of diamonds through the KPCS since it was charged with exporting gold on behalf of third parties for government such as the police and customs, among others.

“We are a monitoring institution for government by our legislation. We are also to promote the jewellery industry. For these reasons, we could not go wholly on the Stock Exchange. So the alternative is to partake in the new government initiative, which is public-private- participation. So that has been the new direction that we are pursuing. So, it is not likely we will go to the Stock Exchange.”

He indicated that PMMC had discussed the new plan with the Ministry of Lands & Natural Resources, as well as the Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning while a proposal had been sent to Cabinet.

“Before the end of the year, we would know government’s intention of how it wants us to go into the PPP.”

The MD further noted that his outfit was embarking on a new vision, which will completely do away with exporting raw materials.

“PMMC needs to recapitalize but government is not ready to do this” and this has resulted in the company borrowing heavily from the banks at huge interest.

PMMC currently needs between $5 million and $8 million dollars to operate efficiently and effectively as well as have the clout to compete internationally.

“We are adding value to all that we do as part of our operations. And this means heavy funding. For example, through our own efforts, we have set up a diamond polishing plant. We are embarking on the second phase which we hope to commission by November, so that we can go into bigger stones. What we are doing now is the smaller stones of Ghanaian origin. But with the laser cutting and everything, we hope to go into the bigger stones – one carat and above. We intend to do this by having an integration. It would be recalled that diamond-producing countries recently met in Accra. Currently, there is the synergy to do most of the polishing in Africa on behalf of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, which produces much bigger stones of 1 carat and above.

“The next stage which we are concluding is to go into a refinery to refine gold that we purchase to make that meaningful. This is because you could buy gold at between 70 and 76 US dollars but the next time it could fall to between 60 and 66 U.S dollars. When you sell it to the world market, you will make a lost. But if we add value to it, we are sure of making profits.”