Sammy Gyamfi, CEO of the Gold Board, says Ghana has begun shifting away from exporting raw gold, with early steps already reducing the volume leaving the country in unrefined form.

Speaking on Joy News' PM Express Business Edition recently, he said the change marks a major break from decades of practice dating back to the Gold Coast era.

“Ghana, since we started mining gold, even when we were the Gold Coast till 2024, we have always exported gold in this raw form.

"We’ve had a few refineries in the country, but the refineries have not gotten the needed support from the government to be able to refine a significant portion of the gold that we produce before we export,” he said.

He described the lack of value addition as a long-standing problem that the current administration is now confronting.

“So value addition has been a challenge for many years, but when President John Mahama was appointing me, it was one of the matching orders he gave as part of his reset agenda for the sector,” he noted.

According to Mr Gyamfi, the president's directive was clear: move Ghana away from raw exports.

“He wanted to see an end and a move away from a dore, what we call raw gold, to bullion or refined gold, so that we can optimise benefits from the entire value chain,” he said.

He explained that the Gold Board has already begun executing that mandate through local refining.

“That is why we, as the Gold Board, have taken up that task; the President gave us very seriously. And so we are changing that narrative as we speak. We have commenced local value conditions, starting with local refining in Ghana,” he stated.

Sammy Gyamfi pointed to a landmark agreement with Gold Coast Refinery as a key step in the transition.

“Not too long ago, we announced the signing of the first-of-its-kind refining agreement with Gold Coast Refinery, and that agreement provides for Gold Board to allocate to the Gold Coast refinery gold up to one kilogram of gold every week, of course, depending on their operational capacity to refine that gold into bullion before,” he said.

He revealed that pilot operations have already begun, with initial hurdles being addressed.

“We’ve done the first trial with 200 kg. There were some teething challenges; we took a step back to resolve them, and we are resuming,” he noted.

The goal, he said, is to scale up production rapidly.

“We are determined to push harder and harder until we attain that one metric ton of refined gold on a weekly basis,” he added.

Mr Gyamfi stressed that the transition is already impacting export patterns.

“So once this agreement takes off fully, we will be reducing gradually the quantity of raw gold that we export, and will rather be increasing the quantity of refined gold,” he said.

He insisted the policy shift is already in motion, not a future plan.

“The process has already started. This is not a promise. This is not something we are going to do. This is something we are doing.”