By:Africanminingmarket

Ghana expects to rake in US$12 billion a year from small-scale gold production if output doubles as planned.

Gold exports from the country have surged as international prices have soared, and much of that expansion is down to small-mine and artisanal production. The government this year set up a regulator to handle all gold buying and selling, hoping to boost foreign-currency reserves and curb black-market trading.

“Our goal is to move above 3 tons a week” in purchases, up from about 1.5 tons a week in January, said Sammy Gyamfi, the Ghana Gold Board’s chief executive officer. “We expect to be able to bring in about US$6 billion by the end of this year, but we are confident that we will reach the US$12 billion in annual inflows from next year.”

The West African nation, which has been locked out of international capital markets following a debt default in 2022, is taking advantage of its largest foreign-exchange earner as gold prices climb. Bullion is trading near US$3,300 an ounce after reaching successive records during the past year.

Ghana’s gold exports rose more than 50% to US$11.6 billion last year. The country is Africa’s top producer of the metal, but small-scale mining, which represents about a third of output, has underpinned an increase in black-market trading.

The regulator has ramped up its gold purchases from artisanal miners to fight smuggling, Gyamfi said in an interview in the capital, Accra. The expected increase in earnings from small-mine output will “have a positive impact on inflation and gross domestic product, and on the foreign component of our debt profile,” he said.