Ghana’s Minerals Commission has ordered the last three large miners still running their own operations, Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti and Chinese owned Zijin Mining, to move fully from owner mining to contract mining by December 2026 or face sanctions including fines and mine closures. The directive, issued in letters between October 2025 and January 2026, is enforced under the Minerals and Mining (Local Content and Local Participation) Regulations, 2020, known as L.I. 2431. Under the rules, surface mining must be awarded to wholly Ghanaian owned companies, while underground mining must be carried out by firms with at least 50 percent local ownership.
The Ghana Mineworkers’ Union, which represents about 14,000 employees in large scale mining, says workers were not consulted and that the shift cuts pay for the same work. Research conducted by the union with finance journalist Adnan Adams Mohammed found that workers moving from owner mining to contractor employment receive at least 50 percent less pay, with contractor staff confirming that basic wages are typically about half those paid to mine operator employees. The union says more than 90 percent of mining workers were already on fixed term or casual contracts at the end of 2024, and that the share in short term, casual or contract employment has since risen above 95 percent.
Commission figures cited by the union show operational contract rates have fallen by more than 17 percent as local contractors undercut one another. Chief Executive Isaac Tandoh acknowledged rates had dropped from $3 per tonne to below $2.50, leaving workers worse off, and the Commission’s response has been to strengthen contractor oversight rather than suspend the directive. Tandoh defended the policy on ownership grounds: “Employment is not the same as ownership. Labour is not the same as control. Our people are working in the mines, agree, but do they own the mines?”
The union’s August 20, 2026 petition to Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah described the contract mining model as dangerous, regressive and economically unsound, and warned of lower tax payments, smaller pension contributions and reduced retirement benefits. A May 26 meeting agreed a roadmap to suspend the directive and establish a technical committee, but the union says that process has stalled, and it has threatened industrial action. Mineworkers at Akyem Abirem, at Zijin’s operation, protested this week, and youth in the community petitioned the minister on November 5 for an immediate suspension and a full impact assessment.
The Ghana Chamber of Mines has called for dialogue rather than confrontation. Its chief operating officer, Ahmed Dasana Nantogmah, said greater Ghanaian participation is a shared objective, but the approach must protect existing jobs, maintain safety and operational efficiency, and keep the industry competitive enough to sustain investment. The dispute now sits alongside the sliding royalty scale and the proposed new Mining Act covered on this site on November 5: Ghana is repricing mining on three fronts at once, fiscal terms, licence terms and, with this directive, the employment model inside the mine itself.