The Ghana Gold Board is making XRF the deciding test for gold purity, with a 0.7 percent price discount for anyone who sticks to the old water density method.
Gold sold to licensed buyers in Ghana will be priced on the strength of an X-ray test from October 1, 2026, under new compliance rules issued by the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), the state body that regulates and buys gold in the country.
The notice, dated September 28 and issued by GoldBod's Compliance Directorate, was reported by Ghanaian Times.
What changes
Up to now, many local transactions have relied on the water density method, a simple test that estimates purity by measuring how much water a gold sample displaces. From October 1, that method can still be used, but only as a rough guide. It will no longer decide the purity figure, the price, or how much a seller is paid.
Instead, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing becomes the definitive method for determining the purity of gold dor\u00e9 — the semi-pure gold bars produced before final refining — bought by GoldBod and its licensed buyers. Payment will follow the purity that the XRF machine reports.
The 0.7 percent discount
GoldBod has left room for cases where XRF is not available. If a licensed buyer genuinely cannot use XRF because of operational or logistical problems, or if the buyer and the seller both agree to use water density, the deal can still go ahead.
But in those cases the gold will be bought at a 0.7 percent purity discount. In practice, that means the seller receives less than the water density reading suggests, which gives everyone an incentive to move to the machine test.
Checking the machines against each other
The Board has also set a tolerance for repeat tests. Where the same gold or the same transaction is tested more than once by XRF, the gap between one report and the next must stay within plus or minus 0.1 percent.
Anything outside that band must be verified before the transaction is closed, or reported to GoldBod.
Who it applies to and the penalty
The rules cover all aggregators and licensed gold buyers, who have been told to be fully ready by October 1. GoldBod says the notice forms part of the terms and conditions attached to their licences.
Failure to comply would be a breach of licence conditions and could attract regulatory or enforcement action under the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140).
Why it matters
Gold is Ghana's biggest export earner, and the small-scale and artisanal side of the trade has long been dogged by disputes over how purity is judged at the point of sale. Moving to an instrument-based standard narrows the room for argument between a miner and a buyer over what a parcel of gold is actually worth.
For Ghanaians abroad who invest in mining ventures or follow the gold trade at home, the change also sets a clearer paper trail on every purchase, since test results now have to fall within a defined range or be explained to the regulator.
