The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has begun a new phase in Ghana’s gold sector, supplying one tonne of gold per week to the Gold Coast Refinery from this February. Announced last month, the plan is designed to curb the export of unrefined gold, maximize domestic economic benefits, and reinforce the government’s agenda of strengthening local processing and creating employment opportunities in related industries.
Ato Forson has highlighted the possibility of increasing this supply in the near future. ‘GoldBod has agreed to provide one tonne of gold per week for the refinery, and this could be scaled up to two tonnes per week in no time,’ Ato Forson said, emphasizing the government’s commitment to strengthening domestic refining capacity while retaining more value in the local economy.
GoldBod currently has the capacity to purchase an average of 2.5 tonnes of gold per week, positioning the board to support higher volumes at the refinery once systems and supply chains are fully established. Officials expect that scaling up refining operations will not only enhance revenue retention but also create jobs and stimulate downstream activities such as jewellery manufacturing and premium gold product exports.
The Gold Coast Refinery, which has been upgraded and is supported by technical collaboration with South Africa’s Rand Refinery, one of Africa’s few LBMA‑accredited refineries, is now equipped to process Ghana’s gold to internationally recognised purity levels. This partnership is expected to help Ghana work toward global acceptance standards that could attract larger volumes of gold from both artisanal and large‑scale mining firms.
GoldBod is also piloting a nationwide gold traceability programme with about 600 artisanal and small‑scale mining operations. This initiative aims to ensure that gold supplied for refining and export is responsibly and sustainably mined, aligning Ghana’s gold value chain with international ethical sourcing standards and improving transparency.
This initiative could bolster Ghana’s foreign exchange earnings by keeping refining fees and value‑added export revenues within the domestic economy, helping stabilise the cedi and strengthen the country’s balance of payments In addition, the reforms reflect a broader policy to end the long‑standing practice of exporting raw gold, a move that could reframe Ghana’s role in the global gold market as a producer of high‑quality refined bullion rather than primarily a raw exporter.
The operational refinery represents a concrete step in building a value-added gold sector, ensuring that more of Ghana’s gold will be processed locally instead of leaving the country unrefined.
