GoldBod Chief Executive Sammy Gyamfi has rejected claims that the state gold trading body is promoting illegal mining, arguing that the corporation was instead created to support sustainability and help formalise Ghana’s small-scale gold sector through traceability and responsible sourcing.
Speaking during a media discussion in response to questions about whether so-called “galamsey gold” enters the GoldBod system, Gyamfi said it was misleading to blame a five-month-old statutory corporation for an illegal mining problem that has plagued the country for decades.
“How can a corporation established barely five months ago be responsible for an age-long galamsey problem?” he asked, noting that illegal mining had reached “unprecedented and alarming levels” long before GoldBod was created.
Sammy said the impression being created in some public commentary, that GoldBod was encouraging illegal mining by providing a market for illicit gold was false and ignored how the gold trade has historically functioned in Ghana. Gold, he said, has always had buyers, with or without GoldBod.
“There has always been a market for gold,” he said. “We have never woken up to any news that there is stranded gold in Ghana because nobody is buying.”
Clarifying GoldBod’s role, Sammy stressed that the corporation does not directly buy gold. Instead, gold is purchased by private, licensed buyers who operate independently, similar to licensed buying companies in the cocoa sector. These buyers are typically based in towns and regional capitals, not at mining sites.
Because of this structure, Sammy explained, buyers currently have no way of determining whether gold brought to their offices was mined responsibly, illegally, or in violation of environmental and labour standards. The challenge, he said, goes beyond whether a miner holds a licence.
“People can be licensed and still mine illegally, worse than those without licences,” he said. “So how does a buyer sitting in a regional capital know how that gold was mined?”
He described the absence of a national gold traceability system as a longstanding structural problem dating back to colonial times. GoldBod, he said, was created precisely to help address that gap, not to worsen it.
Under the GoldBod Act, the corporation is mandated to promote sustainability initiatives, environmentally friendly mining practices and the formalisation of the artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector through traceability and responsible sourcing. The direct enforcement mandate against illegal mining, Sammy noted, rests with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and allied agencies.
However, he said GoldBod has actively supported the fight against illegal mining by resourcing enforcement bodies. Within five months of its establishment, GoldBod provided GH¢5 million and five Toyota Hilux vehicles to the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operation Secretariat, a multi-sectoral coordinating body that previously lacked funding and logistics.
“Since we gave them that support, you’ve seen the renewed fight all over the place,” Sammy said, adding that the secretariat’s leadership had privately expressed gratitude for the assistance.
Turning to traceability, Sammy said GoldBod is working to introduce a comprehensive system by the end of the year, with rollout expected to begin next year. He cautioned, however, that traceability is complex, especially in Ghana’s fragmented ASM sector.
Under the proposed system, licensed miners would be required to package and seal gold at the mine site using modern technologies such as satellite monitoring, RFID tagging and blockchain-based tracking. Each batch of gold would carry a unique code identifying its mine of origin.
As gold moves through buyers, aggregators and smelters, the system would preserve information on its sources, even after gold from multiple locations is melted into bars. GoldBod would then maintain that traceability through to export.
“The aggregator must be able to tell you that this five-kilogram bar came from gold sourced from hundreds of locations,” Sammy said.
Traceability, he added, is critical for Ghana to access higher-value international markets, including London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) refineries, which require strict compliance with OECD guidelines on environmental protection, mercury use and child labour.
“Because our small-scale gold is not traceable, we are limited to markets like Dubai, Hong Kong and India,” he said. “If it were traceable, we would get better prices.”
Sammy acknowledged that traceability alone would not resolve all challenges and said Parliament and government would ultimately have to decide how to treat gold that cannot be traced or does not meet responsible mining standards. Options could include price discounts to discourage irresponsible practices rather than outright rejection, which could fuel smuggling.
He said President John Dramani Mahama had been candid about the limits of the current system and the work ahead.
“Never in the history of this country have we been able to fully achieve this,” Sammy said. “But now we are working on it.”
For GoldBod, he added, the goal is clear: make Ghana’s gold sector more transparent, more valuable and more sustainable over time.