Newmont Ghana confident of surviving turbulence in mining industry

Newmont Gold Ghana Limited has had to reorganize its production model to survive current challenges in the mining industry.

Managers describe the present production period as “turbulent” which demands critical measures to sustain operations.

Profitability in gold mining has dwindled in recent years, mainly due to high cost of production and lowering gold price.

Mining giant, Anglogold Ashanti has shut its Obuasi mine for a two-year restructuring process – over five thousand workers have lost their jobs at the mine.

Other mining firms are facing similar challenges.

Newmont’s African Regional Social Responsibility Manager, Emmanuel Ato Aubynn, says the company has taken critical measures to sustain operations.

“There is the need for leadership to re-organize our production model so that we’ll be able to survive in this very tumultuous period of the mining industry,” he stated. “If you are working in an industry with unpredictable price that you sell your products, it becomes very difficult to actually plan and as a result some of these things you might have heard about redundancy actually happened because we have to think first about the business survivability.”

Newmont Ghana retrenched about 250 workers last year. An additional 600 are expected to lose their jobs this year.

Mr. Aubynn believes the company has taken the right steps to stay in business for the benefit of all stakeholders.

“We strongly believe that things might turn around so even at this time that we may be operating at break even point or any other level of profitability, we have the hope that if we’re able to re-organize ourselves very effectively, things might change because the gold industry is cyclical; today the price is up, tomorrow it’s down,” he noted.

Newmont operates the Akyem and Ahafo mines in Ghana.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh