Ghana is classified as a lower- to middle-income economy that is well endowed with natural resources. The country has seen strong economic growth recently — its GDP grew 6.3 percent in 2018. Aside from the yellow metal, the country also exports resources such as cocoa, oil, timber, electricity, diamonds, bauxite and manganese; they are all major sources of foreign revenue.

Ghana recently took the top spot as Africa’s largest gold producer. Moreover, the country hosts more estimated reserves than key gold-producing countries like Peru and Papua New Guinea.

Those factors make gold mining in Ghana a pursuit with great potential. In fact, Southern Ghana has been considered one of the world’s most prolific regions for gold discoveries for some time, with both gold producers and explorers enjoying success there.

As mentioned, Ghana also stacks up in terms of production — in 2018, it produced 180 tonnes of the precious metal. Read on to learn more about Ghana gold mining, from the economic and political landscape to some of the companies that operate there.

Ghana’s Minerals and Mining Act came into effect in 2006, and underwent improvements in 2014 to address an ongoing problem in the country’s mining industry: illegal gold mining. The Ghanaian government has had trouble with illegal small-scale gold mining, and those issues have put pressure on its relationship with China and caused trouble for its cocoa industry. The laws have been updated to criminalize illegal mining operations pursued by both Ghanaian citizens as well as foreigners.