The Mining Income Investment Fund (MIIF), is on the verge of piloting what has been described as the most revolutionary financing initiative for small scale gold mining in Africa.
This was disclosed by the CEO of MIIF, Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng at the Distinguished Speaker Series at the University of Mines and Technology, UMat, Tarkwa.
The MIIF- UMaT Distinguished Speaker Series is a scholarly engagement of mining industry players by an accomplished academic or professional on critical themes that are intended to optimize or optimally increase Ghana’s benefits from mining. It is what can be referred to as a thought-leadership approach to prescribing solutions for the many challenges in Ghana’s mining sector.
In his address, the CEO explained that the initiative termed the Small-scale Mining Incubation Programme shall provide support for licensed small-scale gold mining companies from US$200,000 to US$ 5 Million per mine.
“This support will be four-pronged – on the back of a detailed resource estimate. It will cover the provision of working capital and capital for mining machinery, ensure corporate governance structures, institute a traceability and tracking mechanism for the gold produced and provide a market for the gold produced through the MIIF Gold Trade desk”, he said.
He disclosed further that the MIIF is also developing a Physical Gold-Linked Exchange Traded Fund (MIIF Gold ETF), supported by sustainably mined gold from the Small-Scale Mining Incubation Programme.
“The MIIF Gold ETF will be structured with gold as the principal underlying asset, for which the security will track the price of gold. This will be the second gold backed ETF on the Ghana Stock Exchange after the South African GLD. We plan to list by September 2024”, he noted.
According to him, the objective of MIIF is to create sustainable generational wealth for Ghanaians. Their role therefore at MIIF is not only in funding or taking equity positions in mines.
“Towards the vision of creating a fully-fledged mining industry and for mining to be a first pillar of the economy, our investment covers every single facet of the mining value delivery chain. This includes investing in capacity building and research and development,” he stated.
The theme for this year’s distinguished speaker series was “mining as an asset class – the rubrics of using the stock market as a growth pole for wealth generation”. The main speaker was the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Dr. Abena Amoah.