Takoradi Gold Ghana Limited (TGGL), a Ghanaian-owned gold mining company, has been granted 15 years mining lease in the Kutukrom area of Prestea in the Prestea–Huni Valley municipality of the Western Region.

The Kutukrom lease, dated January 13, 2020, covers a 13.85 square kilometers concession and signifies the beginning of the development of an underground mine operations in three distinct blocks namely, Tintinnah Block (5.35 sq. km); Bonzer Block (4.40 sq. km) and Kutukrom Block (4.18 sq. km).

According to the lease letter from the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, once TGGL, has warranted that it had the wherewithal in terms of finance, technical, and human resources to undertake efficient mining operations, and had declared its willingness to engage in mining in Ghana.

It added that the government had granted the rights to mine in the specified area, and maybe renewed periodically in accordance with the law.

“The government hereby grants to the company mining rights to all that piece of land described in the schedule hereto and more particularly delineated on the map attached (hereinafter called ‘The lease Area’) for a term of fifteen years (15) from the date of this mining lease,” it said.

“The term may be renewed from time to time in accordance with the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703),” the letter stated.

In an interview with Ghanaian Times, the elated Chief Executive Officer of Takoradi Gold Ghana Limited (TGGL), David Anthony Nicol-Sey stated: “Takoradi Gold Ghana Limited has thus become the latest Ghanaian company to be granted permission to engage in gold exploitation on a large scale in the country.”

He revealed that their operations would yield about five hundred and thirty-five million dollars ($535 million) in corporate taxes to the state, over a period of ten years and also pay a total of about thirty-nine million dollars in mineral royalties.

“Our projection is to treat about five hundred (500) tonnes of materials a day, for ten years. Per our feasibility studies, this will translate in us paying three million dollars of mineral royalties per annum, as well as fifty-three million, five hundred thousand dollars in corporate taxes every year. This will translate into thirty-nine million dollars in royalties, and five hundred and thirty-five million dollars over a ten year period,” Mr Nicol-Sey stressed.

He stated that their expectation as a company was to meet the government’s expectation of them in terms of bringing development to the Kutukrom area through their mining activities.

He said: “Our expectation is what the government of Ghana is expecting from us. We have defined certain resources, and the resource we’ve identified is over 600,000 ounces, and based on the feasibility, these are the things that the government is going to get. This is in addition to the development that will be brought to the area. Again, I’m from the Western Region, and I am delighted to be bringing this to the region.”