GRi Business,
Economics & Finance 01 – 04 - 2003
Gold Fields Ghana effects management changes
UNIL, SSB Bank jumps push up All-Share Index
VRA introduces new billing scheme
Importers of chicken
agree to purchase local birds
Gold Fields Ghana
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 April
2003- Gold Fields, Ghana Limited, the most successful mining company in Ghana
for 2002, has effected major changes in its management under a strategic plan
to bring more bite and pace into its operations.
Dr Toni Aubynn,
Corporate Manager in Charge of Public Affairs and Social Development, told the
Ghana News Agency (GNA) Business Desk in an interview that Johan Botha, Senior Manager in the Operations Office in
Gold Fields Ghana is part of a
group with mines in
Barenberg, according to Dr Aubynn is returning to the Corporate Office as Senior
Manager, "bringing a blend of deep level and surface mining experience to
the company."
He said Botha
recently joined Gold Fields from Morila Mine in
"Mr John Bredenhann, a Senior Manager in charge of operations at Kloof would return to the Corporate Office as Senior
Manager responsible for the newly created Projects Office established to help
focus on the depth extension projects at both Kloof
and Drieffontein Mines, South Africa for which the
Board authorized full feasibility studies recently", Dr Aubynn said.
Other names moving to new
offices are Ken Collet, Senior Manager Operations now
becomes the Senior Mining Consultant Technical; Christian Rampa-Luhembwe,
an operations manager now moves up to Senior Manager Operations at Driefontein while Nelson Ndlala a
Unit Manager takes over from Rampa-Luhembwe as
Manager of Operations.
A statement from Gold Fields,
which operates an open cast mine, said the appointments take effect from 1
April 2003, adding: "They will be well positioned to meet the challenges
of the strategic plan."
It enumerated the objectives of
the changes as to increase production, efficiency and reduce cost. Commenting
on the company's operations for 2002, Dr Aubynn said
Gold Fields' total earnings from Ghanaian operations for last year was 41.9 million
dollars against 30.5 million dollars for 2001 fiscal year with Damang another mine in the Western Region contributing 8.33
million dollars. Tarkwa produced gold valued at 33.6
million dollars.
He said the operating margin at Tarkwa declined marginally from 44 per cent in 2001 to 41
per cent in 2002. On the outlook for this year, Dr Aubynn
said the acquisition of the Damang Mine, five months
ago, had changed the complexion of the company's operations in
"Management is focusing on
optimising common resources to fully exploit operational energies.... the
transition process was challenging ... there are areas where an immediate
merging of resources were implemented, most notably the
Dr Aubynn
said it was expected that a full realisation of the two properties would take
place during the coming financial year, where real value would lie in
exploiting the size of the combined operations in terms of ore bodies,
purchasing and services.
He noted that operations in
Dr Aubynn
said capital expenditure was set to increase to 23 million dollars, saying
major strategic initiatives in
He said optimisation of the heap
leaching facilities, both in terms of throughput and gold recovery, would
remain a key focus this year. Gold Fields of South Africa acquired the Tarkwa underground mine from the then State Gold Mining
Company at a time when Gold Fields Ghana had a 71 per cent interest.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
UNIL, SSB Bank jumps push up All-Share Index
The index rose by 11.95 points
to 1,643.71 points in trading that saw 2,127,500 shares changing hands, up from
126,000 on Friday. SSB Bank sold 2,123,500 shares with four other equities
making up the rest.
The change in the year to date ended
the day at 17.80 per cent. In the broader market, there were four price
changes, all positive. UNIL gained 399 cedis at 5,600 shares, SSB Bank was 51
cedis richer at 6,056 cedis, Ghana Commercial Bank rose by two cedis at 5,112
cedis and Home Finance Company gained one cedi at 1,221 cedis.
Market capitalisation closed up
at 7,494.16 billion cedis from 7,465,18 billion cedis.
The following are the last
prices of listed equities in cedis:
ABL 420
AGC 28,500
ALW 4,300
BAT 1,102
CFAO 67
CPC 630
EIC 5,005
FML 2,009
GBL 520
GCB 5,112 +2
GGL 1,218
HFC 1,221 +1
MGL 257
MLC 310
MOGL 19,751
PAF 750
PBC 390
PZ 2,016
SCB 30,001
SPPC 390
SSB 6,056 +51
SWL 285
TBL 4,900
UNIL 5,600
+399
CMLT 460
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
VRA introduces new billing scheme
Wa (Upper West) 01 April 2003- The
Northern Electricity Department (NED) of the Volta River Authority (VRA) has
introduced new devices known as load limiters, that would enable power consumed
by lifeline customers to be determined more accurately and billed on flat rate
basis.
Dr Charles Wereko-brobbey,
Chief Executive of VRA, said the idea behind the scheme was to ensure that as
consumers move from lifeline class to greater usage of power, the rating of the
load limiters would be progressively increased and the flat rate tariffs adjusted.
He said this after a VRA Board
of Directors meeting at Wa. The
region formed part of VRA's vision to take its
business to parts of the country where the authority has customers and its
staff.
Dr Wereko-Brobbey
said consumers whose bill exceeded the lifeline consumption would be switched
to pre-paid meters over the next two to three years. He said NED had drawn a
programme to extend electricity to more communities in the Upper West Region
over the next three years.
This had been necessitated by
the improvement in the quality of power supply to the region following the
completion of a sub-station at Sawla in the Bole
District of the Northern Region.
The VRA Chief Executive said the
authority was determined to offer the same level of quality and reliable
services to all its customers throughout the country and called on customers to
reciprocate by paying for the power they consume.
Dr Wereko-Brobbey
said the authority would construct a transmission line between Tumu and Han to complete the power transmission loot for
the northern half of the country.
This additional line would
enable the people of the northern part of the country to enjoy a higher level
of reliability of power. The provision of electricity to rural communities, he
said, had been identified as a priority under the Power Reduction Strategy
Programme (PRSP) which seeks to utilise proceeds from the HIPC initiative to
offer basic services to poor and deprived communities.
VRA would take advantage of
funds from HIPC to increase the access to electricity to many more communities
in the rural areas of the four regions, which fall under NED through the
Self-Help Electrification Programme, he added. The regions are Brong-Ahafo,
Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com
Importers of
chicken agree to purchase local birds
Kwaku Owusu Baah,
Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) told the Ghana
News Agency (GNA) that the Ministry has plans of helping local poultry farmers.
"The government has added an additional duty of 20 percent to prices of imported
chicken making the price competitive" he said.
He said the bulk of poultry feed
being maize was expensive on the open market and MOFA has built maize stocks at
reasonable prices for poultry farmers. He said MOFA was assisting local poultry
farmers by giving them loans through the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB)
while it was also supporting those who have the capacity to produce day-old
chicks locally to do so at a cheaper price.
GRi.../
Send your comments to viewpoint@ghanareview.com