The Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) is urging the government to introduce a reduced sliding-scale mineral royalty framework for small-scale miners, arguing that the sector has been largely left out of the country’s landmark royalty reform.
In a press statement issued on March 13, GHEITI said the current policy conversation has focused almost entirely on large mining companies, even though small-scale mining contributes significantly to Ghana’s gold output and rural livelihoods. The transparency body believes a tailored royalty structure for smaller operators could help bring thousands of informal miners into the formal tax and royalty-paying system.
“The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources should also consider introducing a reduced mineral royalty regime for small-scale miners, to get them into the tax and royalty-paying pool, while at the same time creating a necessary favourable business climate for such indigenous businesses,” the statement said.
Ghana’s new sliding-scale royalty regime for large-scale mining, which took effect on March 9, links royalty payments to global gold prices. Under the framework, the lowest rate of 5 percent applies when gold prices are around $1,900 per ounce, rising to a ceiling of 12 percent when prices reach $4,500 per ounce. GHEITI wants a similar principle, adapted to the realities of smaller operators, applied across the artisanal and small-scale segment.
The initiative argues that one of the persistent reasons thousands of small-scale miners operate outside the formal system is the perceived burden of regulatory and tax obligations relative to their scale. A flexible, reduced royalty structure, it contends, could make compliance more practical and financially attractive for local operators.
GHEITI also described the new large-scale regime as fair in principle, saying it allows the state to capture greater revenue during periods of high commodity prices while sharing risks with investors when prices fall. However, the body raised concerns about how the royalty bands are structured, with industry players arguing the bands may be overly aggressive and insufficiently flexible during price downturns.
GHEITI further warned that fiscal uncertainty, rather than the new royalty structure alone, poses the biggest risk to Ghana’s investment attractiveness, pointing to the sudden introduction of the Growth and Sustainability Levy without prior industry consultation as a disruptive factor for long-term corporate planning.
By extending the royalty reform conversation to small-scale mining, GHEITI says the government has an opportunity to significantly widen the tax base while strengthening accountability in a sector that has long struggled with informality and weak oversight.
