The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), through its Compliance Directorate, directed Self-Financing Aggregators on 24 August 2026 to have gold doré refined in Ghana before export, with effect from 1 September 2026. From that date GoldBod approves no export of unrefined doré bought under an arrangement with an approved Offtaker, and existing offtake agreements had to be amended by 31 August to provide for local refining. The directive is a condition of the aggregators’ licences, and exporting or attempting to export unrefined doré can lead to refused or suspended export approvals and to suspension or revocation of the licence under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
Read with GoldBod’s guidelines of 13 July 2026 on onboarding Offtakers and conducting transactions with them, the directive sets this order for a lot bought for an approved Offtaker:
- GoldBod completes KYC, AML and financial due diligence on the proposed Offtaker before the aggregator applies to transact with it, and the draft offtake agreement filed with that application now carries the local refining obligation.
- The Offtaker remits foreign currency before the aggregator buys any gold, and GoldBod pays the aggregator the cedi equivalent at the Bank of Ghana Reference Rate, so refining and settlement of its charge fall between the Offtaker’s remittance and the export.
- The aggregator buys doré, and a refinery approved or designated by GoldBod refines it; GoldBod may fix the refinery for a particular lot. The refining outturn, the fine gold actually recovered from the doré, is produced in Ghana before export.
- The refining charge is borne by the aggregator or the Offtaker, as the offtake agreement provides, and is settled before export. The July guidelines already leave GoldBod’s assay and regulatory fees, freight and insurance with the aggregator.
- GoldBod assays the gold, verifies the foreign-currency inflow for it, confirms local refining and settlement of the refining charge, and then facilitates export to the Offtaker.
No refinery in Ghana is on the LBMA gold Good Delivery List of 67 refiners, so gold exported under the directive becomes London Good Delivery only after a listed refiner has melted, assayed and cast it into bars under its own mark.
The directive applies to Self-Financing Aggregators and their offtake agreements with approved Offtakers. Refinery approvals and designations, and any further operational directives on refining, rest with GoldBod under Act 1140.