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Government’s drive towards value addition to our raw material production is gathering some momentum, as bauxite mined in the country, is going to be refined before exporting.

With the initiative for bauxite mining, government is determined to establish two refineries in the country.

A consideration is being taken to establish one of these refineries at Yabiw in the Shama District, Western Region, to refine rich bauxite from Awawaso.

Member of Parliament for Shama, Hon Ato Panford, told GN TV News on the sidelines of an annual general conference of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) chapter of the Shama Constituency that the refinery will be sited in the Yabiw free zones enclave.

“Bauxite mine from Awaso comes to Takoradi Port and then mostly it used to be by rail, the rail went down and then they were using road… the trucks were hauling from Awawaso through our constituency to the port. In fact, the paradigm has to change and the president has taken that bold step that we are going to set up a refinery. Now we should look at the dynamic positioning of Shama and the industrial enclave that we have, it gives us better leverage for us to have the refinery here.”

Hon Panford contended that the Yabiw free zones enclave is an advantageous location due to its closeness to the port, power supply and land.

He is optimistic that the establishment of the refinery will create jobs for the unemployed youth in the area.

“There will be about two of them, and if you look at the technology in refinery you will need sea water or sea salt, we are close to it. Now this waste to energy plant that is coming to Yabiw also gives us leverage to produce power- about 33 MW of power- to also feed into bauxite refinery plant directly. It requires a lot of power and then we are going to use the waste being generated within Western Region,” he clarified.