Ghana Small-Scale Gold Output Hits Century-High Mark

Sat June 06 2026

Ghana’s small-scale miners produced 3.11 million ounces of gold in 2025, surpassing large-scale producers for the first time in over a century and accounting for 52.4 percent of national output, the Ghana Chamber of Mines revealed at its 98th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Accra.Timber production data

Total gold production jumped 23.41 percent to 5.94 million ounces, up from 4.82 million ounces in 2024, driven almost entirely by a 63.82 percent surge in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Large-scale output, by contrast, slipped 2.98 percent to 2.83 million ounces, shrinking the sector’s national share from 60.6 percent to 47.6 percent.

The Chamber credited the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), launched in April 2025, for formalising gold trading and reducing smuggling, which channelled more ASM output into official figures.

Yet the milestone arrives under a cloud. Ghana’s government is pushing a sliding-scale royalty regime that would replace the current flat rate with levies starting at 9 percent and rising to 12 percent when gold prices hit $4,500 per ounce. The Chamber has warned the structure could stall new projects and threaten the 6.5 million-ounce production target for 2026.

Chamber Chief Executive Kenneth Ashigbey said the proposal “does not strike that balance” between state revenue and industry investment.

Beyond gold, manganese production grew 3.85 percent to 5.2 million tonnes and bauxite expanded 21.9 percent, while diamond output collapsed 40.65 percent to 197,233 carats, hit by weaker prices and competition from lab-grown alternatives.

The 2025 figures cement a structural realignment a century in the making. Whether it holds will rest on how Ghana navigates the tension between extracting more state value from the boom and keeping the investment conditions that sustain it.

Source: https://www.newsghana.com.gh/