The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) has announced that licensed gold buyers and aggregators will be required to use X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing as the standard method for determining gold purity from September 1, 2026.
The directive was contained in a press release issued by GoldBod on August 17, 2026, as the regulator moves to strengthen quality control and improve consistency in Ghana’s domestic gold trading sector.
Under the new requirement, XRF testing will become the standard basis for determining the purity of gold doré purchased by GoldBod and its licensed buyers, effectively ending the use of the water density method as the definitive method for purity determination.
GoldBod said licensed buyers must acquire suitable XRF equipment, ensure their personnel are properly trained, and keep records of XRF measurements for every gold purchase.
The requirement will also apply across the buying chain. Licensed aggregators are expected to acquire appropriate XRF machines and deploy them to their Tier 2 and Tier 1 buyers to ensure purity is accurately determined at the point of purchase.
However, GoldBod said the water density method may still be used where an XRF machine is genuinely unavailable due to operational or logistical constraints. In such cases, the result will be treated only as indicative, and the gold must be purchased at a minimum purity of 0.5%.
GoldBod will subsequently conduct its own XRF assessment, with the Board’s result serving as the basis for the final purity determination and payment.
The regulator has also introduced a 0.05% tolerance when comparing successive XRF reports for the same gold or transaction. Any variation beyond that threshold will require further verification and reconciliation.
GoldBod warned that all licensed buyers and aggregators must comply with the new requirements from September 1. Failure to do so will constitute a breach of licence conditions and may attract regulatory or enforcement action under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
The Board said the new testing regime is intended to bring greater consistency and transparency to gold purity determination while reducing discrepancies in transactions within Ghana’s gold trading market.
