Rosy Royal is a quarry company and not Gold refining- IMANI

Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI has made some startling revelations about the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery. According to him, Rosy Royal, the company claimed to be the majority owner of the refinery, is actually a quarry company with no experience in gold refining.

The company’s books, he said on his X wall show no record of any $20 million+ investment in building a refinery.

In fact, Rosy Royal has no personnel at the refinery, which is chaired by a politician and managed by an independent consultant.

Cudjoe alleges that the government’s announcement of Rosy Royal as the majority owner is a ruse, and the real owners of the 80% equity stake in the refinery are unknown.

He claims that the Bank of Ghana’s investment in the refinery will ultimately cover the initial investments made by the unknown owners, allowing them to secure a permanent stream of cash flows from Ghana’s gold with zero effective upfront investment.

Furthermore, Cudjoe states that the government is working to redirect assaying and refining business from existing refineries to the new refinery, starting with the Bank of Ghana gold purchasing program.

He suggests that this is not merely meant to boost Ghana’s reserves but rather to benefit the unknown owners of the refinery.

Cudjoe’s revelations raise concerns about the transparency and ownership structure of the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery, as well as the government’s involvement in the project.

His claims warrant further investigation to ensure that the interests of Ghana and its citizens are protected.

*Below is the Full Up*

*Update on the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery Saga*

1. The current phase of the Royal Ghana Gold Refinery costs less than $7.5 million, according to insider sources. The $20 – $25 million bandied about reflects planned future investments in subsequent phases.

2. The intense international PR was to lead everyone in Ghana to believe that the refinery was built by and is majority owned by an obscure Indian company called “Rosy Royal”. It also aimed to erase from the public mind the existence of bigger, more sophisticated, and currently IDLE, gold refineries in the country. Ghana has almost a dozen gold refineries, by the way. Most of them are financially hamstrung due to a weak policy environment for local value addition.

3. On the quiet, the Bank of Ghana (the central bank) has been primed to become the equity partner in the new gold refinery and is being asked to invest additional resources for various “enhancements” and trading capital. The Ghanaian state’s equity will thus move from PMMC (the national jeweller) to Bank of Ghana, and the “sleeping partners”, whoever they are, will be able to recoup all their upfront investments (due to the underlying cost inflation). Meaning that the *carried interest* of 20% held by the state is really a “ruse”. In a roundabout way, the Ghanaian state will end up paying for that refinery in full whilst owning just a 20% stake.

4. At the same time, the government is working hard to redirect assaying and refining business from existing refineries to the new refinery starting with the Bank of Ghana gold purchasing program. Those who think that policy is merely meant to boost Ghana’s reserves should now revise their notes. Reference is also made to our earlier essay on the Gold for Oil deal and the shadowy middlemen involved.

5. And here is the banger: the *real owners* of the 80% equity stake in the refinery cannot be the company the government has announced: “Rosy Royal”. We have examined its books over the last 6 years, and it never made any $20m+ investment to build a refinery anywhere. In fact, it runs a quarry and knows nothing about refining gold. Rosy Royal has no personnel at the refinery, which is actually chaired by a politician best known as an Eastern Regional Chairman of the ruling party and managed by an independent consultant, the founder of New Delhi’s Rare Tech.

Unsurprisingly, the total capital of Royal Ghana Gold Limited in Ghana itself is just a little over $76,000.

6. The “real 80% owners” of the new refinery have put everything skillfully together to secure a permanent stream of cash flows from Ghana’s gold. And they are on course to achieve that with *zero effective upfront investment* (given that the Bank of Ghana will end up covering even their initial investments when it pumps in working capital).