The Ghana Manganese Company (GMC) has resumed operations as directed by the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry last Friday.
The General Mine Manager of GMC, Joseph Ampong who confirmed this to Citi News said they have been mining at a 20,000 tonnage capacity since Saturday.
Last week, the Lands Ministry earlier announced the shutdown of the company for allegedly causing revenue loss of about $360 million (GH¢1.94 billion) to the state between 2010 and 2017.
The sector minister Kweku Asomah Cheremeh alleged the country lost $12.8 million in royalties, $79 million in corporate taxes and $6.1 million in dividends.
However, the Chief Operating Officer of the Company, Benjamin Atsu Quashie denied the allegations saying that the company paid $31 million as corporate tax and $17 million as royalties before December 31, 2018. The company was asked to resume operations on Friday.
Speaking on the latest development, the General Mine Manager of GMC, Joseph Ampong said they have also resumed exporting of the ore.
“As we are speaking now Ghana Manganese is working, we have actually started operations on Saturday and everything is under control and all aspects of the mining operations are working now. The Minister directed us to stop the actual mining, exploration and exports but as we are speaking now, we’ve started doing exports, exploration and mining operation as well. We produce every day 20,000 piece of ore. As we are speaking we are in full capacity to produce 20,000 piece of ore.”
Meanwhile the company says it has lost over 1 million dollars due to the shutdown.
The Finance Officer of Ghana Manganese Company, Emmanuel Appiah Kubi explained that the company made loses during the closure period.
“As a company, everyday when the mine is shut we lose about 1.5 million dollars so as the mine is shut we have some costs to bear and per my calculations, everyday we spend about 280,000 even though we are not producing so in effect it has really affected us financially.”
He further explained the impact of the closure on the government.
We lost and the government also lost. The government lost in CITs, royalties, and other withholding taxes. Going forward we want to work in good spirit with them and we don’t want to hold them accountable.
The post Shutdown cost us about $1.5 million – Ghana Manganese Company appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana, Current Affairs, Business News , Headlines, Ghana Sports, Entertainment, Politics, Articles, Opinions, Viral Content.
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