The Ghana Gold Board (GOLDBOD) plans to develop and operate its own mines on behalf of the state, with local communities receiving ownership stakes in the projects, chief executive Sammy Gyamfi has said.

Speaking during an engagement with members of the National House of Chiefs on Friday (29 May) Gyamfi said the government was moving beyond buying gold from private producers and was pursuing a strategy to establish state-backed mining operations.

“We are not only interested in buying gold produced by others,” Gyamfi said. “The President has told us to go into the development of our own mines — mines that will be owned by the GOLDBOD for and on behalf of the state.”

Gyamfi said the initiative was being undertaken in collaboration with the Ghana Geological Survey Authority, which he said had received government funding to carry out geological investigations in mineralised areas released by the Minerals Commission.

He said the surveys were intended to generate reliable geological data to identify commercially viable mineral deposits, a process he suggested had been neglected in the past.

“Once we conduct credible geological investigations, then we will know where these minerals are located. And then we can mine responsibly and have our own gold as a country,” he said.

According to Gyamfi, geological investigations have already begun in three prospective areas. He said plans to undertake exploration activities in Atuna were rejected by local traditional authorities, but chiefs in Funsi in the Upper West Region and Binsiri had approved the initiative.

“We went to Atuna and met the traditional leaders there and they said no. We then went to Funsi and Binsiri, and in all these areas the traditional leaders accepted us,” he said.

The GOLDBOD chief said the agency intended to expand exploration activities to other parts of the country.

He also announced plans to allocate equity stakes in future GOLDBOD-operated mines to host communities through their traditional authorities.

Under the arrangement, traditional leaders would hold between 10 and 20 percent of the ownership in the mines as a free-carried interest on behalf of local residents, he said.

“When we open a GOLDBOD mine, GOLDBOD will not own it 100 percent with its partners,” Gyamfi said. “There would be at least between 10 and 20 percent ownership to traditional authorities as free-carried interest to hold in the interest of the community.”

The proposal forms part of broader efforts by the government to increase state participation in Ghana’s gold sector while seeking to strengthen community involvement in mining projects.