Ghana has secured a $35 million dividend from Australian-listed gold producer Perseus Mining, seven times the $5 million payout the company made to the state last year, as Africa’s leading gold producer steps up efforts to capture more value from its mineral wealth.
Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson said Perseus Mining (Ghana) Limited presented the government with GH¢391.2 million ($35 million) in dividends, attributing the sharp increase to the company’s stronger profitability.
*“Ghana must receive its fair share from the extractive sector. That is why we introduced the sliding-scale system: when mining companies earn more, the people of Ghana must benefit more!”* Forson said.
The payment compares with the GH¢73.5 million ($5 million) dividend Perseus paid Ghana for the 2024 financial year. The government holds a 10% free-carried interest in Perseus’ Edikan Gold Mine.
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The larger payout comes as Ghana reshapes its gold industry to retain more value domestically, from production and trading to refining and exports.
In January, Ghana announced sweeping mining reforms that included plans to replace fixed royalties with a sliding-scale system linked to gold prices, while also strengthening local-content requirements.
The government has argued that higher gold prices should translate into greater returns for the state and Ghanaian economy.
Ghana has since pushed further into local processing. Its GoldBod announced last week that, from September 1, 2026, gold doré handled by its licensed aggregators must be refined in Ghana before export, with export applications for unrefined doré no longer accepted.
The policy shift comes as Ghana's gold industry benefits from elevated prices and record production. The country produced about 6 million ounces of gold in 2025, its highest output on record, with artisanal and small-scale miners accounting for roughly half of production.
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For Perseus, the stronger Ghanaian payout comes amid a particularly strong financial year. The company produced 404,998 ounces of gold in the financial year ended June 2026, from operations in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, while developing its Nyanzaga project in Tanzania.
Perseus has also increased returns to its own shareholders. The company declared a 14 Australian-cent full-year dividend for FY2026, worth about A$187 million, an 87% increase from the previous year.
The sevenfold increase in Ghana's dividend therefore illustrates the government's growing ability to benefit directly from stronger mining profits, even as it seeks to capture additional value by requiring more gold to be processed within the country.
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