Ghana’s gold sector politics have sharpened into an open fight over how the state treats unlicensed small scale miners. The Minority caucus in Parliament, in a statement dated October 23 and signed by Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, ranking member of the Lands and Natural Resources Committee, demanded that Ghana Gold Board chief executive Sammy Gyamfi apologise unqualifiedly and resign or be dismissed. The caucus says a circulated video shows Gyamfi suggesting that small scale miners could operate outside forest reserves, water bodies and roadsides without the requisite licences and permits.
The Minority’s legal argument is specific. It cites Sections 9(1) and 82(1) of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), which require a mineral right and a small scale mining licence before mining, and Section 89 on the designation of small scale mining areas. Its seven demands include a government sanction of Gyamfi, a thorough audit of GoldBod documentation to verify the traceability of gold purchases, a declared state of emergency in red flag illegal mining hotspots, and a clear government roadmap to end illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.
GoldBod’s response, reported on October 24, is that the video was selectively edited. The board says the remarks came from a March 2026 engagement with artisanal and small scale miners, and that the circulated version removed the parts where Gyamfi explained the government’s policy of formalising eligible informal operators: licensing them, monitoring them and holding them accountable for environmental impact, rather than legitimising illegal mining.
The substantive policy underneath the dispute is the Artisanal and Small Scale Mining Formalisation and Financing Support Programme, planned for rollout in 2027 with the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the University of Mines and Technology, the Minerals Income Investment Fund and South Africa’s Rand Refinery. GoldBod said it has begun consultations with government agencies, small scale miners’ associations and civil society organisations on the programme, which is meant to provide financial and technical support, improve production and recovery, and reduce environmental damage. Gyamfi has said the reforms of the past two years created 4,866 jobs, a company claim reported from the Mining in Motion conference.
Jurisdiction watch: Ghana is choosing between an enforcement first model and a formalisation first model for the same artisanal sector, and the choice is now a parliamentary fight over the head of the state gold buyer. The pattern is regional rather than idiosyncratic: governments across West Africa are rewriting how small scale gold enters official channels, and the traceability audit the Minority demands would test whether GoldBod’s purchases can be documented from mine to market, which is the point on which the formalisation case stands or falls.