GoldBod Announces Major Changes to Assay Regime For Local Gold Purchases
The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has announced changes to the assay regime for the determination of purity in local gold purchases, pursuant to its regulatory mandate.
In a Compliance Notice dated September 28, 2026, and issued by its Compliance Directorate, the Board said that with effect from 1st October, 2026, the Water Density method of assay shall be used solely as an indicative assessment of gold purity for local gold purchases and shall not constitute the definitive basis for determining the purity, pricing and/or payment for gold purchased by the GoldBod or its licensed buyers.
According to the notice, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Assay shall be the definitive method for determining gold purity and shall constitute the basis for determining the applicable payment for all gold doré purchased by the GoldBod and its licensed buyers.
The notice further provides that where, due to a genuine operational or logistical constraint, a licensed buyer is unable to use the XRF assay method or the parties, that is, buyer and seller, voluntarily elect to use the water density method, the gold doré shall be purchased at a purity discount of 0.7% on the purity determined through the water density method.
On purity differentials, GoldBod directed that all licensed buyers shall apply an appropriate purity deviation limit, also referred to as splitting limit, when comparing successive XRF Assay reports for the same gold or transaction.
It said the permissible purity differential between one XRF report and another shall be maintained within the range of ±0.1%, and any purity differential exceeding this deviation limit shall be subject to further verification before the transaction is concluded or reported to the GoldBod.
The Board reminded all aggregators and licensed buyers that strict compliance with the notice shall commence on October 1, 2026, and that the notice shall be deemed to form part of, and shall be read together with, the terms and conditions of all licences issued by GoldBod to aggregators and licensed gold buyers.
It warned that failure to comply with the requirements of the notice shall constitute a breach of the applicable licence terms and conditions and may attract appropriate regulatory and enforcement measures under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
All licensed buyers and aggregators are therefore required to take all necessary steps to ensure full operational readiness by 1st October, 2026.
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