Royalties go up in West Africa

Production and Markets

Publishing Date: 19 Nov 2009 1:34pm GMT
Author: Mining Journal

The government of Sierra Leone has passed a new mining act increasing royalties for diamond and precious metal producers, while Ghana has announced that it also plans to increase royalties.

Sierra Leone's new mining law will increase diamond royalties to 6.5% and gold and precious metal royalties to 5%, as well as requiring mining companies to spend 0.1% of annual revenues on community projects.

Ghana, Africa's second largest gold producer, said it also plans to increase royalties to 5% to increase government revenues and help it to increase government spending by 20% next year.

(November 19)