Rising international gold prices and the expectation of continuing high prices has buoyed Ghana’s prospects of attracting large scale investment to develop the country’s mines. Once known as the Gold Coast under British rule, Ghana remains Africa’s second biggest gold producer after South Africa, producing more than 2m ounces of gold a year.

While production has declined from highs of 2.6m ounces in 1999, new projects are likely to boost output, and an explosion in speculative exploration for new sites is likely to increase the chances of Ghana finding new deposits. Even if concessions elsewhere in the world may offer more cost-effective short-term mining, Ghana’s stable social and political environment is likely to be conducive to company strategies that envisage sinking long-term capital for “big bucks” underground mining.