PMMC, National Security Bare Teeth At Gold Scammers

The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), has hinted it will soon embark on massive clamp down on illegal companies operating mainly by foreign nationals in the gold industry, scamming unsuspecting licensed gold dealers in the name of pricing.

The move, which is a response to complaints by industry players, is a collaborative effort between the PMMC and the National Security.

Managing Director (MD) of the PMMC, Nana Akwasi Awuah, who hinted this to dispel fear among licensed gold dealers, said they are aware of the activities of these scammers and are mapping out strategies to “fish them out” and “flush them out”.

Per concerns expressed by the gold dealers, these foreigners have set up database under interactive marketing scheme, ostensibly to beat down price of the precious mineral for their gains.

The operations of these faceless foreigners, according to the dealers, have existed for a very long time, costing and threatening the survival of genuine gold businesses greatly.

“The point on some foreign individuals illegally engaging in the trade, it has already come to our attention and it is something that we are fashioning out on operation to fish them out and flush them out. So, it is work in progress very soon you will see or hear if not feel those operations taking place”.

According to the MD, enough information on these individuals, have been collected and so soon such persons would be rendered powerless to rid the industry of these scammers.

“We have identified them, we have identified some of them, we are picking up the intel as we move on and we are working closely with National Security on that so you will see us in action very soon”, he revealed.

The MD said this at a workshop in Accra on Tuesday to Wednesday, August 16 and 17, 2022 to set in motion an initiative to proactively ensure Ghana’s gold meets internationally required standards and hub.

The well-attended workshop also forms part of government’s efforts to sanitize and streamline activities within the downstream sector. According to the PMMC, it is partnering sister agency Minerals Commission, in this vision which is funded by the World Bank.

At the two-day stakeholder engagement was to ostensibly introduce licensed gold dealers on this initiative, Nana Akwasi Awuah said, this has become necessary because of the direction in which gold business is moving into internationally. He said since February 2022, gold trading has taken a totally different dimension demanding strict adherence to certain regulations almost like the diamond business.

“For so many years when you are shipping gold to Dubai, there wasn’t any strict requirements, in terms of due diligence, signing paperwork and all that. But today, those who export or ship gold to Dubai, you will appreciate that there is a lot of paperwork required now. Why? Why because there is this whole phenomenon today known as responsible sourcing where the global consumers of gold are saying that if you are sending gold outside Ghana, we should be able to tell where the gold came from and trace the chain of custody otherwise, we will gradually get to the point where gold from Ghana would be blacklisted”.

He continued “In fact, truth of the matter is that, if you go to Dubai today with gold and you are unable to meet the due diligence requirements, you would be compelled to dispose the gold on the black market and immediately you opt for that, you will get lesser value for your gold than if you had complied or completed the due diligence requirements for the buyer.

“So, in essence, what we are trying to do is to carry you along in terms of the vision that we have ahead of us. The vision is simply this, we want to get to the point where gold from Ghana, can be tagged as responsibly sourced. That is where we want to get to.

“This year, with Mineral’s Commission, we are doing a project which is funded by the World Bank where we are developing a traceability system for Ghana’s gold and we acknowledge that this project cannot succeed without you, it cannot succeed without your input”.

To make this work, PMMC under this vision is making new licensing requirements for licensed gold dealers who the Company says it consider “very important stakeholders”.

It said these new Terms and Conditions, demand that gold dealers file monthly Returns beginning October 2022. Failure to heed by filing the Return will attract punishment. Under the new regime, fees for new license has been reviewed upwards from GH₵7, 000 to GH₵10. 000 while renewal is pegged at GH₵7, 000. Aside taking participants through the process of the new gold license holder’s manual, Mr. Awauh said steps are also being made for application of license to be done online.

“Very soon, we will get to a point where even the application for the license, will happen online so that you don’t have to travel all the way to Accra to be able to do that. So, it is work in progress, a lot is being done”, he added.

The MD assured, the workshop which is first in a series has come to stay and will continue so that various stakeholders will be well informed on issues concerning their trade.

This month, Ghana’s new gold refinery located on the premise of PMMC at Diamond House, will be inaugurated by President Akufo-Addo following which gold would be refined locally. Royal Gold Ghana limited Refinery, will be the third refinery aside two privately owned Gold Coast Refinery and Sahara Royal Gold Refinery.

Ahead of that all-important event, PMMC is buying gold locally for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and also the refinery which has capacity to refine some over 400 kilograms of gold per day. It is a expected that in a day, PMMC will purchase at least 600 kilograms.

Nana AkwasiAwauh assured PMMC will buy gold from the licensed dealers at a very competitive price and so called on the dealers including foreign companies, to sell portions of their gold to PMMC for the aforementioned reasons. He emphasized “in terms of price, we will buy at a premium; PMMC will buy at premium whether it is 1 cedi, whether it is 2, whether it is 5 cedis, we will buy.

The basic understanding is this, we acknowledge we don’t have presence in every mining community in Ghana you are there, you are down there and so it makes business sense that if you buy directly from the miner, we don’t expect that you will buy it to PMMC at the price that you bought from the miner how then do you sustain your business? That is not what we expect so we will be very competitive when it comes to pricing if we have to buy it at a premium, we will do so”. He said as a serious National Assayer, Mr Awuah said the Company is committed to remain competitive and will go with the forex rate to remain competitive else they will lose all the gold dealers.

Board Chairman of PMMC Kingston AkomengKissi assured government will do everything within the confines of the law to support the gold business and encouraged dealers to sell portions of their gold to PMMC. The board chair who is a former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Akwatia constituency indicated that plans are underway to standardize gold price.

“There should be a way out and we have started it. You see in gold trading, sometimes when you go to the mining areas, you can hear that gold price have risen from let say $20 to $25 everybody is saying that now today’s price is $25 but you go down there, nobody is going to buy it at that price.

When it comes to that then, the policy will be like if the world market price is $45, 000 a kilo, everybody knows wherever you take it if you go to Bolga, it will $45, 000, if you go to Walewale it will $45, 000. But we are not there yet so that one it is very difficult to talk about that now” he said.

Source: Anchorghana