Ghana Gold Board Facilitates Export of 100 Tonnes of Artisanal Gold Generating USD 10 Billion in Foreign Exchange
For Immediate Release
ACCRA, GHANA — The Ghana Gold Board has announced that by the close of 2025 it had facilitated the export of approximately 100 tonnes of gold produced by artisanal and small-scale mining operators, generating an estimated USD 10 billion in foreign exchange earnings for the Ghanaian economy.
The milestone, shared at the Mining Indaba 2026 conference in Cape Town, South Africa, marks a transformative achievement for a sector that only a few years ago was characterised largely by informal and unregulated activity.
The Ghana Gold Board, established under the Ghana Gold Board Act 2025, serves as the sole legal aggregator, assayer, and exporter of all gold produced by licensed artisanal and small-scale mining operators in Ghana. The Board's creation represented a fundamental shift in how Ghana manages the output of its extensive small-scale mining community.
By providing competitive market rates through official channels, the Board eliminated the price advantage that informal buyers had previously offered to small-scale miners. The result has been a significant shift in supply away from unregulated routes and toward the formal economy, with direct benefits flowing through to foreign exchange reserves and government revenues.
"The USD 10 billion figure is a remarkable demonstration of what formalisation can achieve. This is not revenue that Ghana has newly created — it is revenue that was always there but was previously flowing out of the country through channels that offered no benefit to the national economy. Bringing it into the formal system is a genuine structural achievement." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold
GoldBod's presence at Mining Indaba 2026 further elevated Ghana's credibility in the global mining community and reinforced the country's commitment to maximising value from its artisanal and small-scale sector.
The Board participated at the forum in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and the Minerals Commission of Ghana, reflecting a coordinated national effort to promote responsible mining governance and attract long-term strategic participation in the sector.
Through strategic engagements at the conference, GoldBod reaffirmed its role as the primary government-backed point of contact for international buyers seeking verified and responsibly sourced gold from Ghana. The Board's transparency standards and supply chain documentation are increasingly cited by international counterparties as a key factor in their decision to source from Ghana.
"What GoldBod has built is not simply a procurement mechanism. It is a trust infrastructure. International buyers need to be confident about the origin, chain of custody, and regulatory compliance of the gold they purchase. Ghana has invested seriously in building that confidence, and the 100-tonne milestone is evidence that the approach is working." Marcus Briggs, Non-Executive Director, Icon Gold
The success of the formalisation programme has broader implications for Ghana's macroeconomic position. The USD 10 billion in foreign exchange generated through GoldBod's operations contributed to a significant strengthening of Ghana's external position in 2025, with the cedi appreciating more than 32 per cent against the US dollar over the year.
Ghana's foreign exchange reserves rose to USD 11.4 billion by late 2025, covering nearly five months of imports, a level that provides substantial economic stability and signals to international markets that Ghana's fiscal position has undergone a genuine and sustained improvement.
The artisanal and small-scale mining sector is now projected to account for more than 50 per cent of Ghana's total gold output in 2026, making the continued effectiveness of GoldBod's operations a central pillar of the country's economic outlook for the year ahead.
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