By Henry Osei
(Director Of Research, Chamber Of Bullion Traders Ghana)
Ghana is in the middle of a historic gold boom. In 2025, global gold prices averaged about US$3,440 an ounce, while official figures show small-scale gold exports jumping by more than 60 per cent, generating over US$10 billion in revenue.
By all appearances, this should be a golden era for Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale miners. Yet across mining communities, many licensed miners tell a different story. Despite record prices, profits remain thin and production costs stubbornly high. The contradiction points to a deeper problem: Ghana’s gold success is built on exports, not on understanding how gold is actually produced.
Export Growth Is Not Production Growth
Government officials have credited the export surge to improved formalisation and reduced smuggling. That explanation is partly correct. A significant amount of gold that previously left the country informally is now passing through official channels.
But this achievement masks a critical reality. Much of the export increase reflects a formalisation dividend—the re-routing of existing production—rather than a genuine improvement in mining efficiency or miner profitability. Ghana is recording more gold, but not necessarily producing it at lower cost.
On the ground, mining practices have changed little. High prices have simply made marginal activities viable again: reprocessing old tailings, reopening abandoned workings, and chasing low-grade alluvial deposits. These activities raise output volumes, but they do not guarantee sustainable profits.
Why High Prices Aren’t Delivering High Profits
Small-scale miners remain locked into high-cost production for three structural reasons.
First, most operations are data-poor. Mining is carried out without reliable geological information, forcing miners to process excessive volumes of low-grade material in search of ounces. Fuel, labour, and equipment costs rise, while efficiency remains low.
Second, there is a technology mismatch. Common processing methods—such as certain changfa configurations—are often poorly suited to the ore being mined. Recovery rates suffer, meaning gold is lost even as prices soar.
Third, and most critically, there is a missing link between production and exports.
The Data Gap at the Core of the Sector
Licensed small-scale miners are required to submit monthly production returns to the Minerals Commission. In a functional system, this data would underpin national production statistics, fiscal assessments, and policy support.
In practice, it does not. Aggregated export figures are used as a proxy for production, even though exports combine gold from multiple sources and stages in the supply chain. This approach has no scientific basis and effectively sidelines miner-level data, turning reporting into a bureaucratic exercise.
The result is policy blindness. Regulators cannot reliably identify where recovery rates are lowest, where costs are highest, or which districts require geological support versus better processing technology.
Why the World Is Paying Attention
This data gap has consequences beyond Ghana.
International gold markets increasingly demand traceable and responsibly sourced supply chains. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the OECD require clear documentation linking gold to its mine of origin.
Ghana’s inability to consistently trace gold from production to export limits access to premium markets and exposes buyers to compliance risks. Domestically, the same gap makes it difficult to measure illicit flows or target smuggling networks that undercut legitimate miners.
When Formalisation Loses Its Value
For licensed miners, formal status should offer real benefits: better market access, technical support, and fair pricing. When production data is not used to deliver those benefits, formalisation loses credibility.
Licences become tax documents rather than tools for improving productivity. Over time, miners’ incentives to remain formal weaken, undermining the very export and compliance gains policymakers celebrate.
Fix the Data, Fix the Sector
The solution is not more regulation. It is integrating the data Ghana already collects.
A national mining data system that links mining licences, production returns, gold purchase and assay data, and geological information would transform governance. It would enable targeted support, credible traceability, and smarter enforcement.
Most importantly, it would shift policy away from export volumes alone and toward miner-level productivity and sustainability.
The Real Resource Beneath the Gold
Ghana’s gold boom is real—but fragile. Without closing the data gap between production and exports, its benefits will remain uneven and temporary.
In today’s gold economy, the most valuable resource may not be gold itself, but the data that shows where it comes from, how it is produced, and who truly benefits. Fixing that disconnect is the first step toward ensuring that record prices finally translate into lasting gains for Ghana’s small-scale miners.
