Ghana’s Minerals Commission has drawn a firm line with three of the world’s largest gold miners, rejecting requests for additional time and holding to a December 2026 deadline for Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti and Chinese-owned Zijin Mining to hand over their operations to locally owned contractors or face sanctions.
The three companies are the last major miners still running their Ghana operations with their own staff, after most other large-scale miners switched to contract mining ahead of Ghana revising its local content rules in January 2025 to require the transition. The Minerals Commission communicated the December 2026 deadline through separate letters sent in October 2025 and January 2026. Each company had independently requested extensions to allow full compliance, and the regulator warned in the letters that failure to meet the deadline could result in sanctions.
Under the rules, surface mining must be carried out by fully Ghanaian-owned firms, while underground mining must be conducted by companies with at least 50 percent Ghanaian ownership.
Newmont, which operates the Ahafo North and South gold mines, sought the most ambitious extension, asking to comply fully by 2027, citing additional regulatory and governance requirements it must satisfy as a publicly listed company. Regulators rejected the request, pointing out that other listed miners, including Gold Fields, had already complied. The matter was discussed during meetings this month in Accra between Newmont’s global Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Natascha Viljoen, and Minerals Commission officials, according to government sources.
Zijin’s Ghana unit said it has been engaging with the commission since November 2025 to comply with the local content rules, including preparing tenders and technical frameworks for the transition, while introducing new technologies that require initial benchmarking before a full tender process can proceed. Newmont and AngloGold Ashanti did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, which first reported the story on Wednesday.
Government sources said the rules are designed to build capacity among Ghanaian mining service companies and retain more value in-country, pointing to the emergence of local firms such as Rocksure and Engineers and Planners as evidence that domestic companies can absorb expanded contract mining roles.
The consequences for non-compliance are significant. Sanctions could include heavy fines as a first step, with authorities reserving the right to shut down mines that continue to fall short.
Ghana’s move is part of a broader trend across African governments tightening mining rules to extract more revenue from rising mineral prices. Mali ended a nearly two-year standoff with Barrick Mining in November over the enforcement of its own new mining code.
The Ghana Chamber of Mines did not respond to requests for comment, though a source within the group indicated it was engaging with the commission, raising questions about whether the commercial case for self-operation should take precedence over local content policy.
