Stakeholders raise concerns over new minerals royalty - Govt says it’s fair, equitable
Stakeholders have raised concerns about the new minerals’ royalty framework, which increases the percentage of royalties mining firms pay to the government if there is a rise in the price of minerals such as gold and lithium.
The Stakeholders, including the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) and the Ghana Chamber of Mines, have warned that the new regulation has the potential to undermine investment in the mining sector.
However, the government insists the regulation is fair and equitable, and will enable the country to derive maximum benefits from its natural resources, while taking into account the interests of mining companies.
“The advantage is that it allows the state to capture the benefit in good times, like in the gold sector, and we have applied this across the mineral sector,” the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, told journalists when the L. I was introduced in Parliament in December last year.
The minister added that the new framework would also protect mining companies during periods of price decline, as royalty rates would automatically adjust downward.
Regulation
The Minerals and Mining Royalty Regulations, 2025, which officially became law on March 9 this year, after the constitutionally prescribed 21-day sitting days of Parliament, changed the flat royalty rate of five per cent on mining companies to a sliding-scale royalty framework of five to 12 per cent.
With the new law, if the price of gold is up to $1,900 per ounce, the royalty rate will be five per cent, but it changes to six per cent when the price is above $2,000 and moves to 12 per cent if the price exceeds $4,5000.
An ounce of gold is currently around $5,000, meaning the country, which is the biggest gold producer in Africa, should be enjoying a royalty of 12 per cent.
This applies to all mining companies except Zijin, AngloGold Ashanti and Goldfields, which have subsistence development agreements.
As part of measures to cushion mining firms, Parliament last Friday passed the Growth and Sustainability Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which reduced the levy on the profit before tax of mining companies to raise revenue, from three per cent of gross production to one per cent.
GHEITI
In a statement last Friday, GHEITI said the sliding-scale royalty framework was not new in the country, with the very first one dating back to 1986, where Section 22 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 1986 (PNDCL 153), and Minerals (Royalties) Regulations, 1986 (L.I 1340), and 1987 (L.I. 1349) introduced a royalty sliding scale of three per cent to 12 per cent, linked to profitability, expressed as operation ratio.
The old regime, it said, was replaced in 2006 with a new rate of three to six per cent, which was subsequently changed to a flat rate of five per cent, and then revised again to grant the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources the discretion to determine the rate, and further provided that in the absence with the minister’s discretion, the flat rate would apply.
With the new framework, GHEITI said there were genuine concerns regarding the thresholds in the royalty bands, which meant that every $500 increase in gold price led to a one per cent rise in the royalty rate.
“GHEITI wishes to point out that the biggest threat to Ghana’s investment attractiveness is not necessarily the newly prescribed mineral royalty, but fiscal predictability and certainty, which are essential for long-term planning,” the statement signed by the Co-Chair of GHEITI, Dr Steve Manteaw, said.
The GHEITI further called on the government to scrap the Growth and Sustainability Levy (GSL) to reduce the fiscal burden on mining companies and enable them to absorb the new royalty regime.
Ghana Chamber of Mines
For the Ghana Chamber of Mines, the downward revision of the Growth and Sustainability Levy (GSL) was a welcoming development, but it said more needed to be done.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Chamber, Dr Ken Ashigbey, said the government must ensure the reduction of the mining royalties to attract more investment into the mining sector, as well as promote its growth.
“The 13.54 per cent royalty in Ghana, which effectively means that’s where the one per cent GSL to the 12 per cent at today’s gold price conversion, will not make us competitive,” he said.
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