GoldBod buys 1.8 tonnes of raw gold from large-scale miners for local refining

The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has purchased 1.8 tonnes of unrefined gold from large-scale mining companies over the past two months as part of efforts to boost local refining and strengthen the country’s gold reserves.

Chief Executive Officer of GoldBod, Sammy Gyamfi, said the initiative allows the board to buy gold directly from mining companies in its raw form in Ghana, rather than purchasing the refined product after it has been processed abroad.

Speaking in an interview with Bernard Avle at the Mining in Motion Conference on Tuesday, October 20, Mr Gyamfi said the initiative was intended to ensure that more gold produced in Ghana is refined locally before being added to the country’s national reserves.

“Now we are buying. We started buying two months ago and so far we’ve bought 1.8 tons from large-scale mining companies, and we buy that in raw form in Ghana. We refine it locally and we add it to the reserves,” he said.

He explained that the gold purchased from the mining companies undergoes local refining before being sent to a London Bullion Market Association (LBMA)-accredited refinery for smelting and stamping ahead of its addition to the national reserves.

The initiative builds on progress made in the local refining of gold from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector, where the level of local refining reached 95 per cent in October, according to Mr Gyamfi.

Despite the progress, he identified the high cost of doing business as a major challenge facing local refineries.

Mr Gyamfi stressed that creating a favourable business environment would be crucial to sustaining local refining operations and expanding the sector’s capacity.