The Minerals Income Investment Fund of Ghana recorded 7.82 billion cedis in mining royalties between January and September 2026, an increase of 106% from the 3.79 billion collected over the same period in 2025, according to figures released publicly on Wednesday 14 October.
Large gold mines provided around 7.66 billion cedis, compared with 3.54 billion a year earlier. Their contribution thus rose by about 116% and accounts for nearly 98% of mining royalties recorded over the first nine months of the year.
The fund attributes the acceleration to higher gold prices, the new progressive royalty scale, resilient production and tighter oversight of mining operations. The published data, however, do not allow the share of each of these factors to be isolated.
An annual target already nearly 87% met
Medium-sized gold operations paid 110.34 million cedis, almost twice the 55.31 million recorded a year earlier. Quarries brought in 11.35 million cedis and sand extraction 550,871 cedis. Royalties on limestone, by contrast, fell to 4.84 million from 7.08 million, a decline attributed to production disrupted by rains in the second quarter.
The MIIF had reported 5.39 billion cedis in receipts for the first half. Compared with the cumulative figure for September, this amount shows an increase of 2.43 billion cedis in the third quarter.
The institution targets around 9 billion cedis for the full year 2026. It has therefore already achieved nearly 87% of that target and still needs to collect around 1.18 billion in the fourth quarter to reach it.
Ghana has applied since 10 March a scale that replaced the uniform 5% rate for gold. The royalty reaches 12% when the metal trades at or above 4,500 dollars an ounce. Mining groups and several diplomatic missions had asked that the maximum rate apply only above 5,000 dollars, but the Ghanaian authorities kept the initial threshold.