Ghana is drafting wage, tender floors for mining contractors, official says

Ghana's mining regulator is developing minimum wage and tender benchmarks for contract mining firms, seeking to curb aggressive underbidding as the country pushes miners to outsource more operations to local contractors, a senior official said on Thursday.

Ghana, Africa's top gold producer, in January 2025 ordered miners to shift surface operations — blasting, loading, hauling and dumping — to Ghanaian-owned contractors and underground operations to joint ventures with at least 50% local ownership by December 31 or face sanctions. It is consistent with a broader push by Africa's resource-rich nations to try to retain more value from their mineral wealth.

But Ghanaian mine workers have spoken out against the directive, saying contractors offer lower pay and weaker job security.

In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Ben Birch-Mensah, director of local content at the Minerals Commission, the national regulator, said officials wanted to ensure that workers' pay and conditions would not suffer.