GoldBod Bans Export of Unrefined Gold Doré From Ghana Starting September 1
- The Ghana Gold Board issued a compliance notice on August 24, 2026, directing all Self-Financing Aggregators to refine gold doré locally before export
- GoldBod warned that exporting unrefined gold doré will be treated as a breach of an SFA licence, with sanctions including suspension or revocation
- All existing offtake agreements between SFAs and approved offtakers must be amended by August 31, 2026 to comply with the new requirement
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Ghana's gold regulatory authority has moved to close a significant gap in the country's mineral export chain, ordering that gold doré can no longer leave the country without first being refined on home soil.
Source: Facebook
The Ghana Gold Board, widely known as GoldBod, issued a compliance notice on August 24, 2026, requiring all Self-Financing Aggregators and their approved offtakers to process gold doré at a locally approved refinery before any export is permitted.
The rule comes into force on September 1, 2026.
What the new GoldBod directive requires
Under the directive, every commercial arrangement between an SFA and an approved offtaker must include a clear provision for local refining.
GoldBod has stated that it will only process export requests once it has confirmed that the gold has been refined in Ghana, that all refining charges have been settled, and that assay, regulatory, and export requirements have been satisfied.
The Board has also reserved the authority to designate which refinery handles specific gold consignments and to issue additional operational guidelines as needed.
Refining costs will fall on either the SFA or the approved offtaker, subject to whatever commercial terms the two parties have agreed upon.
GoldBod grounded the directive in its mandate under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), which tasks the Board with overseeing the purchase, sale, refining, value addition, and export of gold across the country.
The Facebook post below contains GoldBod’s official statement.
Deadline for existing gold contracts and penalties
Operators with existing offtake agreements have until August 31, 2026 to revise those contracts to reflect the mandatory local refining requirement.
GoldBod has indicated it may call for proof of such amendments at any point.
Any SFA found exporting, or attempting to export, unrefined gold doré from September 1 onwards will be treated as having breached the conditions of its licence.
Penalties under the Ghana Gold Board Act include the refusal or suspension of export approvals, suspension or outright revocation of licences, and a range of administrative and enforcement sanctions.
The move is part of a broader push by GoldBod to ensure that a greater share of economic value from Ghana's gold resources remains within the domestic economy, rather than being generated elsewhere through overseas refining.
Source: Facebook
Afenyo-Markin sues Sammy Gyamfi over extortion allegations
YEN.com.gh earlier reported that Minority Leader and Effutu MP Alexander Afenyo-Markin filed defamation suits against Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) Chief Executive Officer Sammy Gyamfi and two media organisations, sharing the legal action on the floor of Parliament when the House reconvened on Monday, August 24, 2026.
The announcement came after a prolonged and increasingly bitter public exchange between the two men over the Domestic Gold Purchase Programme (DGPP) and the reported US$1.7 billion loss recorded by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) in 2025 under the scheme.
The dispute took a sharp turn when Mr Gyamfi labelled Afenyo-Markin an "extortionist" in response to the Minority Leader's sustained pressure for accountability over GoldBod's operations and the reported BoG losses.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
