Ghana makes government certificate mandatory for exporting dore gold.

KOLKATA: The concern about entry of conflict dore gold (semi-pure gold) into India from Ghana for refining has been put to rest with the Ghana government making it mandatory to obtain certificate from its state-run Precious Metals and Marketing Corporation (PMMC) for any dore gold exports to the world markets.

Ghana exports around 90 tonnes of semi-pure or dore gold to India.

“There had been reports that conflict gold was entering into India from Ghana. That was hurting the image of Indian gold jewellery in the international markets. Now that Ghana has introduced this new rule the trade will become more transparent. Money laundering will also be checked because there will be no under or over invoicing by anybody involved in the gold trade,” said James Jose, secretary, Association of Gold Refineries and Mints.

Conflict gold is mined illegally or by employing child labour or using illicit means of mining. Funds generated by such means are used to support military war or illegal activities.

Jose added that the Ghana government has stipulated that all gold dore exports from Ghana from 1st Nov 2016 onwards shall be routed through PMMC with their packing list and assay certificate. “Some countries like Burkina Faso also route semi-pure gold through Ghana. The stipulation will also bring such gold under stringent monitoring,” he said.

Dore import was higher in September 2016 at 8.29 tonnes as against dore import in July (0.41 tonnes) and August 2016 (0.70 tonnes), which is attributed to the growth in physical demand taking away the discounts on the yellow metal prevailing in the market.

But these overall lower dore imports in Q3 of calendar 2016 of 9.39 tonnes as against the Q2 2016 import of 14.10 tonnes, also indicate a dull period for the domestic gold refining industry compared to previous years. “This drop in refining activity is largely due to entry of smuggled gold into the market to avoid the high import duty of 10% on the official gold,” explained Ketan Shroff of Penta Gold Bullion.

While dore gold import was around 9.39 tonnes, pure bullion import in September jumped to highest since January 2016 to 36.7 tonnes. The industry is expecting an import of 50 -60 tonnes import in October to meet the festive season demand.

India had refined 180 tonnes of semi-pure gold in 2015. There are 32 gold refineries in India and and 27 of them process dore or unrefined gold with atotal refining capacity of 1,467 tonnes. “This calendar year we do not think that dore gold refining will exceed 120 tonnes,” said Jose.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com