The Honorary Vice President of IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has raised serious concerns about the financial stability of Rosy Royal Minerals, the Indian company partnering with the Ghanaian government on the newly commissioned Royal Ghana Gold Refinery.

The refinery, which is being hailed as a significant step forward in Ghana's efforts to add value to its mineral resources, may be built on shaky financial foundations, according to Simons.

The Royal Ghana Gold Refinery is a joint venture between Rosy Royal Minerals and the Bank of Ghana, with the latter holding a 20% stake.

The refinery, located in Accra, has the capacity to refine 400 kilograms of gold per day and plans to source its gold dore from small-scale and artisanal miners initially, with future expansion plans to process gold from large-scale mining operations.

However, Bright Simons has cast doubt on the viability of this partnership, revealing that Rosy Royal Minerals is financially unstable and lacks the capacity to invest in such a significant project.

"The company that it says is coming to partner with the Bank of Ghana to do this refinery work does not have the capacity at all. They run some quarries in a few states in India. It is a pretty small company," Simons said in an interview with JoyNews' Kwaku Asante.

Simons further detailed his concerns by pointing to Rosy Royal's most recent financial statements. "Its last audited financial statement showed the company made $3,000 in revenue and $250,000 in losses. How would such a company want to invest $20 million?" he questioned.

This discrepancy led IMANI Africa to investigate further, uncovering that Rosy Royal Minerals has never made any significant overseas investments, which casts doubt on their ability to finance the refinery.

The investigation also revealed that Rosy Royal Minerals does not have any personnel at the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery, raising further questions about the legitimacy of the partnership.

"Who has that? It turns out it is a small consultancy in India based in New York called Rare Tech. This is basically a one-man shop, owned by Sandeep Chadha," Simons explained.

He expressed concern that the technical aspects of the refinery are being handled by an independent consultant with no direct ties to Rosy Royal Minerals.

Simons also highlighted the broader implications of this partnership, suggesting that the Bank of Ghana might be left to shoulder the financial burden due to Rosy Royal's lack of capacity. He speculated that the refinery could be used as a mechanism to control the Bank of Ghana’s Domestic Gold Purchase Programme.

"This is beginning to look like a scandal now. It looks like somebody had an intention to position this refinery as grand so they can put the Ghana Gold programme under it and use this as a mechanism to control the Purchasing Programme," he warned.

In his analysis, Simons drew a link between the refinery project and the controversial Agyapa royalties deal, which was suspended in 2021 following public outcry.

He cautioned that the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery might be a backdoor method to reintroduce the Agyapa deal, potentially allowing certain entities to gain undue control over Ghana's gold resources.

"This refinery could be the front through which somebody captures mandatory control of a portion of Ghana's gold when we have been fighting a battle against Agyapa for several years now," Simons asserted.

In conclusion, Simons urged the public to critically assess the viability and intentions behind the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery, given the questionable financial stability of Rosy Royal Minerals and the potential for the project to undermine Ghana's control over its valuable mineral resources.

Find the full interview below: