Currently, Ghana, the second largest gold producer in Africa and the 10th in the world, produces some 2.9 million ounces of gold per year, approximately four percent of global production.
Despite being one of the largest commodity exchange earners for the nation, gold yielded a return of only $2 for every $1 spent from1990 to 2009.
Dr. Tutu, a Senior Research Fellow of the IEA, urged government to invest and develop mining communities since they would have nothing after the mines are closed.
According to him, Ghana should take a cue from South Africa, where mining communities, including Johannesburg, have been turned into big cities.
From 1990 to 2009, $9.02 billion investments in minerals earned the nation 19.6 billion from gold.
However, total foreign exchange earnings for cocoa over the same period was $13.9 billion, with an investment of about $818 million.
This prediction echoes earlier predictions of the world (or a region) running out of oil. So far, those predictons have been confounded - no wonder why this one's been hedged. Still, it's a tantalizing one that fits the peak-gold scenario...provided that it's remembered that the gold being referred to is economically-available gold.
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