Gold Board (GOLDBOD) Chief Executive Sammy Gyamfi says Ghana is in the process of acquiring a traceability system that will allow every ounce of gold purchased by the state to be traced to its mine of origin.

He said the system is expected to help determine the source of gold entering the formal market, including gold produced by small-scale miners.

Speaking on Joy News’ News File, Mr Gyamfi said GOLDBOD was currently undertaking a national competitive tendering process to acquire the system.

“We, a barely one-year statutory corporation are currently involved in a national competitive tendering process to acquire the traceability system for Ghana to allow trace every ounce of gold we buy to their mine of origin. This is historic!”

He said “government bureaucracy” had delayed the process, but expressed confidence that the procurement would be completed within two months.

He added that the system would be followed by the onboarding of more than 1,000 licensed small-scale miners.

“And the onboarding of the over 1000 licensed small-scale miners will start. Then we'll look at registered cooperative mining schemes who are committed to undergoing training to operate responsibly and we will onboard them as well.”

Mr Gyamfi also said Parliament would need to determine what should happen to gold whose origin cannot be traced.

“And then we'll go to Parliament to pass a law on what should happen to gold which is not traceable, whether it should be confiscated by GOLDBOD - because currently, our law is silent on that - or not buy it or whether we should buy it at a punitive [price].”