We should not just focus on precious minerals like gold, industrial minerals also have many opportunities – ACEP Senior Policy Analyst

The Senior Policy Analyst and Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Maybel Acquaye, has stressed that Ghana and Africa must broaden its focus beyond precious minerals like gold, as industrial minerals hold significant economic potential for the country.

According to her, enormous opportunities exist in terms of making more from the country’s industrial or development minerals, yet national attention has been heavily concentrated on high-value precious minerals such as gold.

Speaking on December 12, Maybel Acquaye said ACEP’s research shows that Ghana can unlock several economic benefits if the industrial minerals value chain is properly developed.

“Over the years there has been significant focus on high-value minerals or precious minerals as popularly known, like our gold.”

“Whiles we’re not touting replacing the relevance of gold or other precious minerals, we believe that industrial and other development minerals also have their place in the development agenda of nations, particularly in Africa.”

“Our studies indicated that there are a lot more opportunities within the value chain that we can actually make more in terms of the economic benefit.”

She explained that Ghana’s industrial minerals sector has largely been limited to raw extraction for construction, pottery, and basic production, even though ACEP’s findings show that opportunities exist at every stage of the value chain.

Maybel Acquaye further urged government to pursue policy reforms that elevate industrial minerals to a more strategic economic priority.

She explained that such reforms would ensure industrial minerals are not treated as secondary during policy discussions but as a substantial sector from which the state can generate more revenue.

She also called for stronger regulation and monitoring in the industry to ensure accurate revenue tracking and production oversight.

“I spoke about adopting remote monitoring technologies to be able to accurately record production volume for effective and proper tax application.”