A diamond polishing plant has been set up by the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) Limited to polish rough diamonds mined locally.

Until the establishment of the plant, locally mined diamonds were polished abroad.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the PMMC, Mr Kwabena Kyere, who made this known at the fifth annual general meeting of the company in Accra, said the plant was part of measures to add value to the products of the company for better margins and sustainable growth.

In addition to the value addition, he said the company would create new markets in the ECOWAS sub-region through collaboration with international jewellery manufacturers.

He said the development of other local stones for the production of ornaments would be intensified by the research department.

Giving an overview of the company’s operations for 2010, Mr Kyere said the PMMC achieved a profit before tax of GH¢895,760, representing an increase of 19.71 per cent over the previous year’s figure of GH¢748,229.

He said the company’s purchases and export of gold represented about 12 per cent of the national output and surpassed the output of all the individual operating mines except Goldfields, Tarkwa and Newmont Ahafo.

The board chairman said from the export of gold, diamonds and jewellery sales, the PMMC generated foreign exchange of $207 million, all of which was repatriated into the country through the banking system.

On corporate tax, he asserted that the company had always been up-to-date in its obligations through the self-assessment scheme administered by the Large Taxpayer Unit of the Internal Revenue Service.

He said by the close of the year, GH¢194,709 had been paid to the government as corporate tax on profits earned for the year’s operations.

Mr Kyere indicated that considering the PMMC’s operations for 2010, the board had proposed a dividend payment of GH¢350,000 to be paid to the government, the sole shareholder of the company.

He said 2010 was full of challenges in the industry, as market liberalisation, coupled with internal and external factors and competition, characterised the operations for gold, diamonds and jewellery.

For his part, the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Henry Ford Kamel, reiterated that the PMMC was established by the government to purchase and export gold and diamonds from small-scale miners to ensure that the miners benefited from their work.

He said the small-scale mining sub-sector had received a considerable boost in its operations, particularly in the production of precious minerals, as a result of the ready and attractive market offered by the PMMC.