The biggest gold producer in Africa, Ghana, is introducing mining reforms to reroute gold produced by artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) to official trade channels.

Engineering News reports that the reforms are an attempt by Ghana to boost its foreign exchange earnings from gold and to end gold smuggling. It hopes to channel 127 tons of ASM gold a year, earning about US$20 billion.

Finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson said the Ghana Gold Board, aka Gold Bod, which was founded last year, would be required to buy at least 2.45 tons of ASM gold a week.

From March, GoldBod will assume full responsibility for negotiating offtake agreements and selling all the ASM gold it procures, Forson said.

GoldBod will raise financing to buy three or four weeks’ worth of gold acquisitions and use hedging or derivative tools to manage price risk.

It is proposed that all forex from the programme will be sold to the Bank of Ghana at an agreed rate.

The sector also plans to formalise environmental and enforcement policies snd traceability initiatives as well as expand local refining capacity.

3 March 2026
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