ACCRA — Ghana’s government has ordered three of the world’s largest gold producers — Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, and Zijin Mining — to transfer majority ownership of their Ghanaian operations to local firms by December 2026, according to five sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The directive, described as a “local participation requirement,” represents one of the most aggressive resource nationalism moves in Africa’s gold sector and could reshape how multinational mining companies operate across the continent.
The three companies — Newmont’s Ahafo South mine, AngloGold’s Obuasi operation, and Zijin’s Gold Fields Ghana joint venture — account for roughly 30 percent of Ghana’s gold production.
“Ghana is reclaiming ownership of its resources,” said one government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the directive has not been publicly announced. “This is not negotiable.”
Mining industry analysts say the directive will be extremely difficult to implement on the prescribed timeline. Constructing credible local partners with the financial capacity and technical expertise to hold majority stakes requires far more than eight months.
“There are only a handful of Ghanaian firms that could even theoretically participate in a deal of this scale,” said Kwame Osei, a mining economist at the University of Ghana. “The capital requirements alone are enormous. This looks ambitious on paper — possibly too ambitious.”
Newmont declined to comment. AngloGold Ashanti and Zijin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The move follows years of debate over how much value large-scale foreign mining operations actually generate for host countries, beyond wages and royalties. Ghana, the world’s second-largest gold producer, has long struggled to translate its mineral wealth into broad-based economic development.
Ghana’s move could set a powerful precedent for other African nations grappling with how to extract greater economic benefit from their extractive industries. From the Democratic Republic of Congo’s minerals sector reforms to Zambia’s push for greater local processing, a wave of resource nationalism has been building across the continent.
The African Mining Vision, adopted by the African Union, explicitly calls for host countries to benefit from “maximum local participation” in mining projects. How the companies respond — whether they negotiate, litigate, or comply — will be closely watched by governments across the continent.