The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has rallied investors to consider the huge opportunities in Ghana’s bauxite downstream industry and invest in the area.

He said aluminium had been identified as a strategic mineral by governments worldwide in the drive towards the energy transition.

Mr Jinapor said that last Wednesday when he led a delegation to this year’s Bauxite and Alumina Conference in Miami, Florida, in the United States of America.

The conference was to promote Ghana’s Integrated Aluminium Industry and market the country’s policy to drive the processes of integration and value addition across the bauxite to the aluminium value chain.

Mr Jinapor, who is also the Member of Parliament for Damongo, indicated to the investor community that the country, with its open society, vibrant economy, resilient democratic institutions, respect for individual liberties and the rule of law where the principles of democratic accountability were ingrained in its body politic, was ready for business.

The engagement, according to the Lands and Natural Resources Minister, would help ensure that the efforts of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to build an integrated aluminium industry with all the linkages to mining, smelting, refinery and downstream production, were realised.

“We are determined to work relentlessly to ensure that his vision comes into fruition,” the Damongo MP said.

For over eight decades, the country has made several efforts to establish and maintain an integrated aluminium industry.

President Akufo-Addo, upon assumption of office in January 2017, resurrected this vision by establishing Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) by an Act of Parliament.

The move by the President, the minister said, was to ensure that bauxite mined in the country was refined locally, thereby helping to develop the downstream industry to provide employment, enhance talent development and to transform the economy.

Raw material base

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer of GIADEC, Michael Ansah, highlighted the need to utilise Ghana’s raw material base to ensure that the aluminium produced was used to drive the downstream industry which would ultimately help the country realise the vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.

Mr Ansah reaffirmed the commitment of GIADEC in meeting regulatory requirements in all developments along the bauxite and aluminium value chain and safeguarding the environment for stakeholder communities and future generations.

The Ghana delegation also held engagements with global giants in the bauxite and alumina industry such as Trafigura Investment Company Ltd, with the view of attracting much-needed investment capital into the industry.

Also present at the conference were top diplomats, industry captains, ministers of state, including Guinean Minister for Mines and Geology, Moussa Mogassouba.