- Mining Towns Must Benefit More From Ghana’s Gold Wealth — Chamber
The Ghana Chamber of Mines has called for a major reset of the country’s mining revenue and royalty distribution framework, warning that Ghana risks losing substantial fiscal value from the fast-growing small-scale gold sector while mining communities continue to see limited economic transformation from the resources extracted from their lands.
Speaking at the Ghana Chamber of Mines Breakfast Meeting with the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in Accra on Monday, Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, said the imbalance in tax contribution between small-scale and large-scale mining had become too wide to ignore.
According to him, small-scale miners accounted for about 52 per cent of Ghana’s total gold output last year, yet contributed only about GH¢0.5 million in taxes.
By contrast, the large-scale mining sector, which produced roughly 48 per cent of national gold output, paid nearly GH¢19 billion in taxes over the same period.
For the Chamber, the figures point to a structural weakness in Ghana’s mining economy: a sector that now produces more than half of national gold output is contributing only a fraction of the tax revenues needed to support public finances, local development and responsible sector regulation.
“We need to make it easy for the small-scale sector to also be able to pay their taxes,” Dr Ashigbey said.
He added that the Chamber had already engaged consultants to support government efforts toward responsible cooperative mining and formalisation of the small-scale mining sector.
The comments come at a time when Ghana is seeking to curb illegal mining, protect water bodies and forest reserves, and maximise revenue gains from rising global gold prices.
The small-scale mining sector has become increasingly important to Ghana’s gold output, but its rapid expansion has also created regulatory, environmental and fiscal challenges. While some operators are licensed and compliant, others operate outside formal structures, making it difficult for the state to track production, assess tax liabilities and enforce responsible mining standards.
For Dr Ashigbey, the solution is not only tougher enforcement, but also a system that makes compliance practical for small-scale operators.
The Chamber’s argument is that formalisation must go beyond licensing. It must include proper production tracking, tax education, cooperative structures, environmental safeguards, access to responsible financing and clear channels through which small-scale miners can meet their obligations without being pushed further into informality.
Beyond taxation, the Chamber also renewed its call for a dedicated mining revenue allocation framework similar to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act used in Ghana’s oil and gas sector.
The concern is that mining communities continue to receive limited direct benefits from the revenues generated by mining operations, even though they bear the environmental, social and infrastructure pressures associated with extraction.
Dr Ashigbey disclosed that three mining companies Gold Fields, Ghana Manganese Company and AngloGold Ashanti together paid about GH¢5.1 billion in taxes from operations within the Tarkwa enclave alone last year.
He questioned how much of that amount eventually returned to the communities where the resources were extracted.
That question goes to the heart of Ghana’s long-running mining development debate. For decades, gold has been central to export earnings, government revenue and foreign exchange generation. Yet many mining towns still struggle with poor roads, limited industrial activity, youth unemployment and weak local supply chains.
The Chamber is therefore proposing that at least 30 per cent of mining royalties be channelled directly back into mining areas to finance local industrialisation, skills development and supplier capacity-building initiatives.
Such a policy, if properly designed, could shift mining communities from being extraction zones into productive industrial centres.
Among the proposed interventions are investments in the local manufacturing of mining inputs, including activated carbon produced from coconut and palm kernel shells. The Chamber also wants repair and reconditioning facilities for mining equipment to be located within mining communities rather than concentrated in Accra or Tema.
The logic is straightforward: Ghana should not only mine gold. It should build the industrial ecosystem around gold mining.
That means creating local firms capable of supplying inputs, servicing machinery, providing engineering support, training skilled labour and developing value chains that remain active even after individual mines mature or close.
Dr Ashigbey drew a historical parallel with gold rush economies, noting that suppliers of mining tools and services often generated more wealth than the miners themselves.
“It is said that during the gold rush in the West, those who sold pickaxes and shovels made more money than the people who actually mined the gold,” he noted.
The statement captures the Chamber’s broader point: Ghana’s mining future should not be measured only by ounces produced or royalties collected. It should also be measured by the strength of the domestic businesses, technical skills and industrial capabilities built around the sector.
Industry leaders believe deeper localisation of mining supply chains could help transform towns such as Tarkwa, Ahafo and Bibiani into regional industrial hubs capable of supporting long-term development beyond gold extraction.
But that will require policy discipline. Royalty allocations must be transparent. Funds returned to mining communities must be protected from political capture. Local procurement rules must support real capacity-building rather than fronting. And small-scale mining formalisation must be linked to credible tax and environmental compliance.
The Chamber’s latest intervention therefore raises two difficult questions for policymakers.
First, how can Ghana allow a sector responsible for more than half of gold production to contribute so little in taxes?
Second, how can mining communities continue to carry the burden of extraction without receiving a more meaningful share of the revenue generated from their lands?
At a time of high gold prices and renewed attention on resource governance, Ghana has an opportunity to reform the mining fiscal bargain.
The challenge is whether government can turn that opportunity into a system that collects more fairly, distributes more transparently and leaves more value in the communities that produce the country’s mineral wealth.
