In a sweeping move to bolster national reserves and curb the export of raw minerals, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has secured a landmark agreement with the Ghana Chamber of Mines to purchase 30% of all gold produced by large-scale mining companies in the country.
Effective July 1, 2026, the new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) mandates that every large-scale mining entity will sell 30% of its output directly to GoldBod locally in Ghana, and in doré (unrefined) form. This marks a strategic departure from the 2022 arrangement between the Chamber and the Bank of Ghana (BoG), which operated under a different framework.
Under the new terms, the gold will be purchased at a discount of 0.55% and, in a significant boost to the local currency, all transactions will be conducted in Ghana Cedis using the BoG Reference Rate.
Keeping Value onshore The agreement is not just a purchase deal; it is a carefully curated supply chain strategy designed to build Ghana’s refining capacity. Rather than exporting raw doré, all gold bought by GoldBod will be refined locally to maximize value retention. Once refined locally, the gold will be shipped to a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) refinery purely for final melting and stamping, before being delivered to the Bank of Ghana to sit in the country’s official reserves.
Anchoring Macro-Economic Ambitions This local value-addition chain is the operational engine behind two major government initiatives. First, it feeds directly into the Ghana Accelerated National Reserve Accumulation Program (GANRAP), an aggressive strategy aimed at building the nation’s foreign reserves to a robust 15 months of import cover by the end of 2028.
Second, the consistent flow of locally refined gold is expected to position Ghana to secure prestigious LBMA accreditation for at least one domestic refinery by 2030. This goal sits squarely in line with President John Dramani Mahama’s overarching economic vision of achieving zero exports of raw minerals by the end of the decade.
Stakeholder Alignment The MoU represents a unified front across government and industry, having been signed by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, GoldBod, the Bank of Ghana, and the Ghana Chamber of Mines.
While the broad strokes of the agreement have been announced, the public can expect a comprehensive breakdown of the finer details when the full MoU is officially published on Monday, July 29, 2026.
