Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister of Mines, received the cheque from Mr George Mark, the Chief Financial Officer of GGL at a ceremony in Accra with the Minister expressing the hope that it would be 10 million dollars next time.

The dividend is the return on government's 10 per cent free carry equity share in Goldfields but according to Mr Adjei-Darko payment of similar dividends had not been forthcoming from other mining companies. "Between 1993 and 1998 the dividend of Ashanti Goldfields dwindled from 8.03 million dollars to 2.18 million dollars whilst Resolute Amansie Mines paid 0.5 million dollars to government in 1999."

The Mines Minister commended GGL for a good job done in striving to break even. He appealed to the mining companies not to limit their goodwill to the development of the communities they operate in. They must evolve a training scheme for their workers since mineral resources get depleted so that when they became redundant they could find something to do to earn a living.

Mr Mark said the company shifted from underground mining to surface mining in 1998 and it expected an annual target of 540,000 ounces of gold. "Our payment of dividend was due to higher efficiency in production and reasonable gold prices among other things," he said. GNA