The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has commenced a nationwide exercise to profile artisanal and small-scale gold miners as part of efforts to establish comprehensive data on gold production and improve traceability within the sector.
The exercise, which began about two months ago, is expected to help GoldBod determine where gold purchased across the country is produced and establish the proportion supplied by artisanal miners compared with licensed small-scale operators. The data is also expected to support efforts to formalise the sector and improve monitoring of gold production.
GoldBod’s Chief Executive Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, said the initiative was being undertaken through the Board’s licensing, gold-buying and receipting systems, which enable it to track the source and category of gold entering the formal market.
Speaking during a Space conversation on X on Sunday, August 9, 2026, Mr Gyamfi said, “We started that exercise, we started it about two months ago because our trading, gold trading industry has now been formalised by the Gold Board.”
He explained that the Board’s receipting system would allow it to determine the geographical distribution of gold production.
“So through our receipting system, we believe that we should be able to know the gold we are buying, which percentage comes from Upper East, which percentage comes from Savannah, which percentage comes from Central, and how is that distributed in those regions,” he said.
Mr Gyamfi said the exercise would also establish how much gold was being supplied by small-scale miners and how much came from artisanal operators.
“And of those that are bringing the gold as miners, how many of them are small-scale, how many of them are artisanal? This is something that will be done in the next two, three months,” he said.
He noted that Ghana currently lacked comprehensive and up-to-date data on the artisanal mining sector, with existing records largely covering small-scale mining licences issued by the Minerals Commission.
“With you, we do not yet have the data, but we are putting the data together because the Minerals Commission is the only organisation that has the data. But they only have records of small-scale mining licences they have issued,” he said.
According to Mr Gyamfi, the situation is further complicated by expired licences and applications awaiting renewal, making it difficult to establish the current size and distribution of the sector.
He said GoldBod was well positioned to fill the data gap because its licensing and gold-purchasing systems provide information on traders and the sources of gold entering the formal market.
Mr Gyamfi said all gold buyers operating under the new regulatory framework were required to obtain licences and undergo due diligence, including Know Your Customer (KYC), anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing checks before they could operate.
“They all go through KYC, they all go through AML checks, counter terrorism financing checks, and so on, before licences are issued,” he said.
He added that GoldBod had deployed inspectors and a task force across the country to monitor gold trading activities and enforce compliance with its licensing requirements.
The GoldBod CEO said the data would provide policymakers with a clearer picture of Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale mining industry and help shape future interventions aimed at formalising the sector.
He, however, said preliminary indications suggested that the artisanal sector could be larger than the licensed small-scale mining sector, although GoldBod was yet to establish its exact size.
“I have the feeling that the artisanal sector is far bigger than the small-scale sector,” he said.
Mr Gyamfi said the Board would be willing to share the findings once the exercise was completed, noting that the information could help address a longstanding gap in Ghana’s mining sector.
“Ghana has never cared to build such data. But we believe that we are better placed as the Gold Board to support this very important need,” he said.
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