Ghana will lose up to $650 million this year in gold sale revenue as a result of declining global gold prices, which has force some mining companies in the West African nation to suspend their operations, Business Ghana reported.

Ghana’s Minerals Commission is predicting that Ghana will lose 500,000 ounces of gold in 2014, dragging down its annual estimate to 3.1 million ounce, from an earlier target of 3.6 million.

“We will definitely record lower volumes this year,” Daniel Krampah, an Assistant Manager at the Minerals Commission said, adding that some companies have placed their mines under care and maintenance.

The price of an ounce of gold as at last Friday was going for $1,299.71, according to Bloomberg data, and if it remains at the level for the rest of the year Ghana would lose $649,855,000 in revenue due to the 500,000 ounces shortfall.

Ghana’s gold production climbed to a record 4.3 million ounces in 2012 from 3.6 million ounces the previous year after prices reached a record high in September 2011.

The nation produced 107.9 metric tons of gold in 2013, making it the eighth- biggest producer in the world, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Gold accounts for around 90 percent of total mineral output in Ghana and is the leading export earner for the country with an average $2 billion per annum contribution to the GDP.

It overtook cocoa, which had for a long time been the country’s biggest export earner.