GIADEC aims to raise US$6 billion to actualize an integrated aluminium industry in Ghana

Ghana Integrated Aluminum Development Corporation (GIADEC) believes it can raise nearly US$6 billion in private finance to achieve a unified aluminium sector. It also hopes that the integrated aluminium development plan would help Ghana's packaging, pharmaceutical, electric cable manufacturing, and construction industries reach their full potential.

GIADEC is now stepping up efforts to develop a comprehensive aluminium industry in line with the country's renewed commitment to use its bauxite endowments to become an automobile and industrial hub within the continent. The nation initially envisioned an integrated industry shortly after independence.

“So, what we have done is that we have broken this up into four projects to make sure that we can bring investors who can take the risk. So we are not putting all the risk in one basket; we are diversifying the risk,” said GIADEC’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Ansah.

The first of four projects, which is now being carried out with a local partner, is the creation of the nation's first refinery and expanding an existing mine at Awaso. The second involves creating a mining and refinery solution at Nyinahin and Mpasaso in the Ashanti Region. By this, a deal has already been struck with Rocksure International Limited, a business owned entirely by Ghanaians. In the third project, GIADEC is looking for a collaborator to build a second mine with a refinery solution in the Nyinahin region.

State-owned GIADEC, which also owns the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and the nation's bauxite resources, is seeking private investors to help it utilise its reserves, build refineries, and transform it into a cutting-edge facility. The initiatives will put Ghana in a position to import unprocessed bauxite from its neighbours in West Africa. Despite Africa's vast bauxite reserves, South Africa is home to the continent's only modern refinery. Ansah also stressed value addition and stated the company is aware of Ghana's previous errors in resource exploitation and is resolved to follow a new path.

Since it was forced to import all of its alumina owing to a lack of a refinery, VALCO the only smelter in the nation has functioned mainly independently of the economy. Bauxite, the primary mineral of alumina used by VALCO, is produced in Ghana but, like the rest of the nation's natural resources, is exported in its unprocessed form.

“We have obtained Cabinet’s approval to identify and engage a strategic partner. To revamp this plant, we need around US$700million of investment; and we are not scrapping the entire plant but replacing the lines that produce the aluminium – we are replacing certain equipment. We are refurbishing the other supporting plant infrastructure they have there to bring it to world-class standard, so that with new technology, with new equipment, we will be able to produce efficiently. VALCO has existed without any linkages at all in Ghana, but this one makes it an integral part of what we’re doing under the GIADEC umbrella,” Mr. Ansah emphasised.

The VALCO facility will take centre stage under the new GIADEC strategy, serving as a pivot between the upstream business and the downstream sector, though an integrated aluminium industry is on the horizon.

“Now, if we execute all these we’re looking at about US$6billion worth of investment into these four projects – all private sector sourced; so, no government investment is going into this. The value this will bring to the economy in terms of economic transformation, the whole industrial transformation agenda and everything we’re doing is hugely significant,” added Michael Ansah.