The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) says the Electrochem Salt Mine and Processing Plant at Ada-Sege, in the Greater Accra Region, will position Ghana as a major salt exporter. 'It is a major transition into large-scale salt mining and processing to enable the country to begin to realise its rightful place as a major salt producer,' Mr. Kobina Tahir Hammond, the sector Minister, noted. The Plant is producing at 99.99 per cent purity andprocesses some six 650,000 metric tonnes of salt per annum. Electrochem Ghana Limited, operators of the salt mine, which is a subsidiary of the McDan Group of Companies, seeks to up its production capacity to one million metric tonnes in 2024. By 2027, it aims to achieve two million metric tonnes - thereby becoming the biggest salt producing facility in Africa. Mr. Hammond, in an address before the commissioning of the plant by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, cited the huge regional and global demand for salt. The use of salt for industrial, human and animal consumption purposes made it a highly strategic resource, which required significant investments to harness its commercial viability, the Minister said. He lauded the McDan Group of Companies for injecting the needed financial resources into the salt mine project, saying that investment was worth it. The Management's resilience and tenacity of purpose, in spite of the teething challenges it faced in establishing the plant, had brought enormous benefits to the people, Mr. Hammond stated. So far, some US$88 million has been invested into the ultra-modern project, which covers the provision of a salt washing plant and its ancillary infrastructure and facilities. 'Progress has been relatively fast considering that the Electrochem industrial site, which was completed in February this year, took you just two years to construct,' he said. The Trade and Industry Minister appealed to the people to adopt the project and support it to thrive. This, he explained was because the facility was a launchpad into the modernisation of salt mining and processing in Ghana. Mr. Hammond expressed the hope that the project would be most beneficial to the country in terms of attracting allied industries which required salt as the basic raw material, to invest, locate and create the much needed jobs in this area. In order to obtain a social licence in operating the salt mine, which had been the subject of rancour and litigation for decades, the Electrochem Ghana Limited was tasked to provide communities in its operational catchment area with some vital social amenities. The facilities include an astro turf football field, roads, scholarships, health clinics, schools, and potable water for the communities. The company has also instituted a three-million Ghana-Cedi interest-free loan scheme to traders and businesses whose livelihoods were affected in the course of the project execution. The Company registered in 2017, has secured theconcession of 41,000 acres at Ada Songor to produce 1,000,000 metric tonnes of salt per annum to supply to local and export markets. In the medium term, the output will be increased substantially and part of it used to feed a chlor-alkali plant to produce caustic soda and other chemical products.

Source: Ghana News Agency