Mahama tells miners Ghana will bar raw ore exports from 2030, but no law backs the pledge yet

Pinned summary · as of 04:53

President John Mahama has warned mining companies that Ghana plans to stop shipping out unprocessed mineral ore from 2030. He made the pledge in a New York address to the Council on Foreign Relations, and reports say it is not yet backed by any Ghanaian law.

What we know

• In New York, addressing the Council on Foreign Relations, Mr Mahama said mineral ores would no longer leave the country in raw form after 2030: “By 2030 we’re not going to export any raw ores,” he said.
• He told companies now extracting Ghana's minerals to prepare for the change, with local processing that goes at least as far as the primary and secondary stages.
• No enacted law currently bans such exports, and Ghana has no general rule obliging all minerals to be processed at home before they are sold abroad.
• The Minerals and Mining Bill put before Parliament in May would let the sector minister prohibit exports of unprocessed concentrates and demand local processing. Those powers would only take effect through separate regulations, and the bill names no 2030 date and makes no ban automatic.
• Large gold producers already smelt their output into doré before it leaves the mine, so a rule aimed at raw ore would bear more directly on minerals such as manganese and bauxite than on gold.
• Mr Mahama's final constitutional term ends in January 2029, before the 2030 target, so whoever succeeds him would inherit the job of enforcing it.
• In 2024, Nana Akufo-Addo, then president, said in a parliamentary address that his government intended to bar raw bauxite exports, and that negotiations over a $450 million manganese refinery were nearly complete.
• For gold, large miners have since July been obliged to sell 30% of production to GoldBod, the state gold board, as doré that is then refined locally. Payment is in cedis, converted at the Bank of Ghana's benchmark rate minus a set discount.
• Officials also want a Ghanaian refinery to win London Bullion Market Association accreditation by 2030. Artisanal gold exporters, meanwhile, can no longer send out unrefined doré unless the metal is shown to have been refined in Ghana.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  MyJoyOnline reported that GoldBod's cedi payments carry a 0.55% discount, and that its deals with Gold Coast Refinery (January) and Royal Gold Refinery (May) each cover a weekly capacity of one tonne. NorvanReports mentions two refinery agreements but gives no discount rate or capacity.
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  MyJoyOnline quoted GoldBod as saying close to nine tonnes of the gold it has aggregated this year was refined in Ghana, and its chief executive, Sammy Gyamfi, put small-scale production in 2025 at a record 104 tonnes. No other report carries these figures.
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  MyJoyOnline reported a sliding-scale gold royalty from 9 March, running from 5% at or below $1,900 an ounce to 12% above $4,500, and said the government held that threshold despite diplomats' pleas for $5,000. No other report confirms these terms.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt of China has agreed to acquire Atlantic Lithium and its partner's stake in the Ewoyaa project, which would leave Huayou with about 87% and the state 13%, subject to further approvals. NorvanReports noted only that Ewoyaa is designed to yield spodumene concentrate, several steps short of battery-grade lithium chemicals.
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  MyJoyOnline said Mr Mahama also pledged in New York to process 50% of Ghana's cocoa beans locally and described a Cocoa Board bond meant to finance purchases while keeping the beans out of foreign lenders' hands. These claims appear in no other report.

Why it matters for Ghana

Mining towns such as Tarkwa, Obuasi and Awaso depend on ore leaving the ground and being sold, so a shift to local processing could change where jobs and revenue end up. Without legislation or regulations, mining companies have no binding rule to plan around, and investors may wait for the bill's fate before committing to refineries. The timing also matters because the pledge would fall due after Mr Mahama leaves office.