Ghana mineral royalties double as gold tops $4,000

Ghana's mineral royalties have doubled. The Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), the state fund that collects them, took in GH¢7.82 billion between January and September 2026, up 106% from GH¢3.79 billion a year earlier. Large gold mines paid almost all of it, as a sliding-scale royalty met gold above $4,000 an ounce.

Why it matters: Royalties are one of the costs pushing up what it takes to mine an ounce of gold. When producer countries take a bigger share at high prices, miners keep less of each rally, and that affects how much new supply high prices can buy.

Why did Ghana's royalty take double?

Two things moved at once: the price and the rate. Ghana switched in March to a royalty that rises with the gold price, charging 5% of gold revenue when gold is at $1,900 an ounce and climbing to a ceiling of 12% at $4,500, as Kitco reported in August. MIIF itself credits higher gold prices and the sliding scale for the jump.

Gold has been far above the bottom of that scale all year. On our price data since 1968, it set a record daily close of $5,426 on 29 January (see our gold price history), and it closed on Friday at about $4,166, still $334 short of the price at which Ghana's rate hits its 12% ceiling. Even after falling 3.7% this year, the price sits in the upper part of the scale's range, where each ounce sold carries a far heavier royalty than at $1,900. For the background on why gold sits where it does, see what moves the gold price.

Source: Minerals Income Investment Fund.

Who is paying?

Big gold mines. Large-scale gold producers paid about GH¢7.66 billion, or 98% of the total, according to MIIF figures reported by Ghanaian media. Mid-tier gold mines paid about GH¢110 million, up roughly 99% on a year. Limestone, a small line, fell to GH¢4.84 million from GH¢7.08 million, which shows that the windfall is a gold story rather than a broad mining boom.

The pace was already clear by midyear. MIIF reported GH¢5.39 billion for the first half alone, which it said was 186% of its target for that period. Its goal for the full year is about GH¢9 billion, which would leave a little under GH¢1.2 billion to collect in the fourth quarter. In dollars, bne IntelliNews put the nine-month total at about $673 million.

What does it do to miners' margins?

It raises their costs, but gold has risen faster. The World Gold Council put global average all-in sustaining costs (AISC) at $1,785 an ounce in the first quarter of 2026, up 16% on a year, and named higher royalties as one of the main drivers alongside corporate overheads.

Set against Friday's close, that average cost leaves an industry margin cushion of about $2,381 an ounce, or 57% of the price, on Global Gold Prices data. That cushion is what producer governments are now reaching for. It also means a sustained fall in gold would hit producer countries' revenues quickly: a sliding scale cuts the rate as well as the base when prices drop.

Leases are the other lever

Royalties are only half of Ghana's bargaining power. The Minerals Commission has said renewing Gold Fields' Tarkwa leases, which expire in April 2027, will not be "business as usual", and Gold Fields told investors in August there was uncertainty over the "timing, outcome, and terms" of any deal. Ghana has already declined to renew Gold Fields' Damang lease, which passed to Engineers & Planners in April.

Not every renewal is a fight. Galiano Gold won extensions at its Asanko mine this month, to 2041 for the Abirem lease and 2043 for Miradani.

South Africa shows the same pattern from the tax side. News24 reported this month that the country's mining taxes have more than doubled in a year on higher gold and platinum prices. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana presents his mid-term budget on 21 October, and the mining windfall will shape the revenue figures.

What to watch

• 21 Oct: South Africa's mid-term budget, the first official read on how much of the mining tax windfall the Treasury is counting on
• 12 Nov: Stats SA's September mining figures, the next check on whether South African gold volumes can hold up while the state's take rises