tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447912510578710146.post398452661304656947..comments2022-04-10T21:24:38.381-07:00Comments on Let's Go Black Stars!: The name's Akua, Daniela AkuaDaniela Corsettihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02280276171531448012noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447912510578710146.post-71493572308282019712011-05-28T11:51:24.321-07:002011-05-28T11:51:24.321-07:00Hiya
The issue of why resources aren't proces...Hiya<br /><br />The issue of why resources aren't processed in the home country is a tricky one. Even here in Canada often we'll pull something (iron, nickel, oil etc) out of the ground in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut or northern parts of provinces, then ship it down south to be processed in the Great Lakes region. This creates an attitude that, even though we have resources, we don't get anything from it.<br /><br /> I think it has less to do with water, and more to do with industrial ecology, general infrastructure and markets. For example, when Rio Tinto wanted to process aluminum, they didn't build the processing plant in Labrador where they mined the aluminum, but instead built it in southern Quebec where a) they were close to railroads, b) they were close to the St. Lawrence, c) they could dam a river for cheap hydroelectric power, and e) they were close to chemicals plants to obtain/sell the acids associated with aluminum processing. In Labrador they would only have had one of those things (two if you equate shipping on the Atlantic with shipping on the St. Lawrence). With respect to Ghana, it's probaby something similar. Gold processng requires a ton of heat, and may also require cyanide, sulphuric acid, zinc, sodium hydroxide, or activated carbon depending on the specific method. Industries thus prefer to build processing plants close (if not directly next to) to industries that produce these chemicals as byproducts (processing of some other minerals will produce cyanide for example).<br /><br />The short answer is that while a gold company could build a processing plant in Ghana, and it would save tremendously on their shipping costs if they did, there are probably a multitude of reasons why they don't, and it'll take some kind of attitude shift in the company to do so.Elizabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07818166422114141308noreply@blogger.com