How can more wealth be generated from mineral resources without discouraging investors? This was one of the main debates that marked the closing of the Mining on Top Africa summit in Paris. In Ghana, the continent’s leading gold producer, the reforms undertaken by the government to regain control of the gold sector are fueling an unprecedented standoff with several international investors. Withdrawal of mining permits, international arbitration, the creation of a public body tasked with regulating the gold trade—these measures illustrate Ghana’s desire to strengthen its economic sovereignty, but they also reignite concerns about the business climate.
As Africa’s leading gold producer, Ghana has recorded unprecedented revenues from the precious metal. In 2025, for example, gold exports generated almost $20 billion, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the country’s total export earnings. The government now intends to leverage this windfall more effectively by processing gold locally and increasing the revenue captured by the domestic economy. This ambition was at the heart of the closing panel at the Mining on Top Africa summit, which took place in Paris on 8 July 2026. Ghanaian authorities presented a strategy based on refining and metallurgy to develop processing industries and export more high-value products.
“The discussion is now centered on value addition on our mineral resource. In other words, we are talking about resource sovereignty. We’ve gotten to the place where we cannot keep exporting our unprocessed minerals. We are getting to the place where we want to maximize our benefits on our resources. So we are looking at investments in the downstream operations. We are looking at investments in the beneficiation process. We are looking at investments in our refineries, our smelting plant.So basically that’s the message we brought here. It’s time we add value to our own process or it’s time we add value to our resources”.
Theophilius Kekeli Agbenezi, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Minerals Commission of Ghana
To achieve this, the Ghanaian government has set up two new industrial organisations: the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation and the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation. The government has also created the Ghana Gold Board, which is responsible for centralising the purchase and export of artisanal gold. This will strengthen the traceability of the sector and develop national refining capacity. However, this desire to regain control over a strategic resource has led to a profound restructuring of the sector. Revisions to certain mining permits, litigation brought before international courts and new gold marketing rules are fuelling a climate of uncertainty, which has been denounced by several investors.
Unfortunately, what we found is that the actual experience in Ghana has been a very bitter one for us and that those relationships have not worked. And what we found is a lot of issues around uh corruption. We’ve had directors acting against us. We’ve had lawyers um that are employed by us actually acting to sabotage our investment. And so we’ve had a lot of people, we have a lot of issues around corruption and the actions of individuals in Ghana to create risk and uncertainty. And Mr. President, I think last year, came out and made an action against, you know, he wants to crack down on that sort of corruption. But the issue for an international investor is that when you see those sort of risks, those sorts of issues, it drives investment away.
James Wallbank, Managing Partner at Ibaera Capital Mining Fund – Australia
For mining investors, legal disputes, bureaucratic hurdles, and the risk of corruption are undermining the confidence of international operators, who are nevertheless essential for financing new mining projects.
I think what I would say is first and foremost the funding is available. The challenge is first how do I attract that funding into Ghana, to the country? let’s say mining already is recognised as an industry that creates a lot of national value. In Australia between 85 and 90 percent of the total export revenue gets back into Australia. That’s what we want to create in Ghana to happen. There’s very few, if any, investors that are against local content. So what we need to do is get everybody to agree that is the intent. Taking licenses off major mining companies, having legal disputes, continuing with local companies or with the government.Whatever the reason is for those things actually happening is actually not the point. The point is that all those things damage the reputation of the country. And so the government has to wrap its arms around that and say, OK, enough is enough. How do I fix this? How do we work this together to support international investment to bring international investment back for the benefit of Ghana and the local community.
James Wallbank, Managing Partner at Ibaera Capital Mining Fund – Australia
Aware of these concerns, Ghanaian authorities maintain they are seeking a balance between economic sovereignty and investment attractiveness. The Minerals Commission is advocating, in particular, for targeted tax incentives and mechanisms capable of preserving the country’s competitiveness while promoting greater local content.
“As a country we are looking at by 2030 we want to do the facing out of export of unprocessed So we know as you rightly mentioned to not augur well with investors. However we are also putting measures in place. Yes so whilst we are looking at we are looking at uh domestic value addition programs we are also considering the fact that investors will not it will not sit well investors. So what we’re doing in that regard. For example, our growth and sustainability levy was reduced from 3 % to 1 % and now we are almost even taking it off. So these are some incentives which we still, when it comes to exploration for example, the VAT on exploration of 15 % have also been taken off. So all these are incentives which should bring investors into the country”.
Theophilius Kekeli Agbenezi, , Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Minerals Commission of Ghana – Ghana
The challenge is therefore significant for Ghana: to successfully regain control of a strategic resource while preserving the attractiveness of the gold sector. With nearly 4.8 million ounces of gold produced in 2024, the precious metal remains the main driver of Ghanaian exports.
