In 2025 Ghana rebuilt the legal framework around its gold trade. If you source, assay, or export gold in Ghana, or buy it from a Ghanaian supplier, you need to understand the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140) — because it changed who may legally buy, assay, and export gold, and it made the old “buy gold direct” pitch not just a scam risk but a legal exposure. This guide explains the regime plainly and shows where a legitimate compliance firm sits within it. Ghana Metals operates within this framework, since 1976.

What Act 1140 Did

The Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140) was passed on 29 March 2025 and assented to on 2 April 2025. It established the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) and gave it a statutory role over the gold trade. Critically, it repealed the PMMC Act, 1989 (PNDCL 219) and absorbed PMMC’s functions — including PMMC’s role as National Assayer — into GoldBod.

This is a single, deliberate consolidation: one body now sits at the centre of the regulated gold trade.

What GoldBod Is — and Is Not

What GoldBod Is

GoldBod is the sole legal buyer, seller, assayer, weigher, grader, valuer, and exporter of all gold produced by the licensed artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector. It also licenses the aggregators, buyers, assayers, refiners, exporters, storage, transport, and smelting operations that feed it. It is the gateway through which ASM-sector gold legally moves.

What GoldBod Is Not

GoldBod is not the mining regulator — mining rights are granted under the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) by the Minerals Commission, and small-scale mining is reserved for Ghanaian citizens. GoldBod is not the central bank — gold reserves are the Bank of Ghana’s domain. GoldBod is not the environmental or tax authority — those are the EPA (under the Environmental Protection Act, 2025 — Act 1124) and the GRA. Keeping these bodies distinct matters, because the scams blur them.

The Three Facts That Changed the Market

| Change under Act 1140 | What it means | |---|---| | GoldBod is the sole legal buyer/assayer/exporter of ASM gold | No private party legally buys, assays, or exports ASM gold outside the GoldBod regime | | Old PMMC and ministerial trading licences are void | A licence issued before the Act no longer authorises trading (large-scale mining-company licences excepted) | | Foreigners barred from local gold trading | Per the GoldBod press statement of 14 April 2025, foreigners had to exit the local gold market by 30 April 2025; from 1 May 2025 dealing in gold without a GoldBod licence is an offence |

Eligibility to be licensed under the new regime is a Ghanaian aged 18 or over, or a wholly Ghanaian-owned company. Foreigners may only apply to GoldBod to off-take gold directly from GoldBod itself — not to buy it on the local market.

Why This Is the Scam’s Worst Enemy

The “buy gold dust direct from miners” pitch was always a fraud signature — the U.S. Embassy in Ghana and the Ghana Chamber of Mines have warned about it for years. Act 1140 made it legally exposed as well: a foreign “seller” of local Ghanaian gold, or anyone offering to “bypass GoldBod,” is by that fact alone outside the law. The regime turns “GoldBod-aligned” into the single clearest legitimacy signal a buyer can look for.

Where Ghana Metals Sits

Ghana Metals operates within the GoldBod regime as a compliance, assay, due-diligence, and documentation service — preparing parcels to move correctly through the regulated framework and coordinating the official GoldBod assay/export route where it applies.

We do not claim to be GoldBod. We do not claim to be the licensed ASM exporter Act 1140 reserves to GoldBod. We do not mine (a Minerals Commission matter under Act 703). We are not a refinery. Naming the regime as the context we operate within is honest; impersonating it would not be. A legitimate firm references GoldBod as the legitimacy anchor — it never pretends to be it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who can legally export gold from Ghana now?

Under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140), GoldBod is the sole legal exporter of ASM-sector gold. Old PMMC and ministerial trading licences ceased to be valid, and foreigners were required to exit local gold trading, with dealing without a GoldBod licence an offence from 1 May 2025. Eligibility to be licensed is a Ghanaian aged 18+ or a wholly Ghanaian-owned company.

Did Act 1140 replace PMMC?

Yes. Act 1140 repealed the PMMC Act, 1989, and absorbed PMMC’s functions — including its National-Assayer role — into the Ghana Gold Board. References to PMMC’s old trading licences no longer carry authority.

Can a foreign company still buy gold in Ghana?

Not on the local market. From 1 May 2025, dealing in gold without a GoldBod licence is an offence, and licensing eligibility is restricted to Ghanaians and wholly Ghanaian-owned companies. A foreign party may only apply to off-take gold directly from GoldBod. A foreign “seller” offering local Ghanaian gold directly is, by itself, a red flag.

Does Ghana Metals hold a GoldBod licence?

We operate within the GoldBod regime as a compliance and documentation service and coordinate the official route where it applies. We name the regime as context; any specific licence claim is something a buyer should verify in a documented engagement rather than take from a web page — and we never claim to be GoldBod itself.

Gold Export Compliance — documentation within the GoldBod regime
Gold Assay & Fineness Verification — determined, not estimated
Responsible Gold Sourcing — OECD due diligence at origin
Verifying a Legitimate Gold Supplier — the anti-scam checklist
Chain-of-Custody Assurance — sealed, tracked, traceable

Discuss a compliant sourcing or export engagement: +233 27 000 0844. Institutional clients only.