The Sammy Gyamfi "licence or not" clip: two tapes, and what each one leaves out

Since Thursday night, two versions of the same video of GoldBod CEO Sammy Gyamfi have been circulating on X.

The first is a 40-second phone recording taken from the audience. The earliest copy QMS News could find was posted at 22:06 GMT on 22 October. At least six other accounts shared it within 90 minutes. According to the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, the remarks were made on 23 March 2026 at a joint GNASSM–GoldBod programme at KNUST in Kumasi, attended by more than 1,500 mine owners. GoldBod's own statement says only that the footage is from March 2026.

In the English part of the clip, Mr Gyamfi says: "So once it is not a water body, it is not a forest reserve, or an obscene place like a roadside." The rest is in Twi. TV3's English rendering of it reads: "whether the person has licence or not; the government says we should allow the person to mine and register and regularise them."

On Friday morning Mr Gyamfi said the clip had been "mischievously cut". A 55-second version, posted as "the full video", was then shared by about ten accounts with the same caption. QMS News compared the audio of the two recordings. They come from the same moment, filmed by two different cameras. The phone video stops just after the line about licences. The longer version runs about 16 seconds further and adds the part about registering and regularising miners, but it still contains the licence line.

In his statement, Mr Gyamfi wrote that a site outside water bodies, forest reserves and other banned places, "even if unlicensed, meets the eligibility requirement of formalisation", and that formalising miners is "a better approach than chasing them with soldiers". GoldBod said on Saturday that "Government's policy is not to legitimise illegal mining." A Lands Ministry spokesperson told TV3 that miners must apply and be approved before they mine.

Section 82 of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) bars small-scale mining without a licence, and a licence can only go to a Ghanaian aged 18 or over. Miners also need an EPA permit, a Water Resources Commission permit where water is used, and an operating permit. Under the 2019 amendment (Act 995), illegal mining carries 15 to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to ₵180,000, and anyone who helps it faces the same punishment. The Coalition Against Galamsey has asked the Attorney-General to look into the remarks. The Minority in Parliament has demanded an apology, Mr Gyamfi's resignation or dismissal, and an audit of how GoldBod traces the gold it buys.

GoldBod is by law the only buyer and exporter of gold from small-scale miners. It reports exporting about 104 tonnes of small-scale gold, worth about US$10.8 billion, in 2025. Ghana Chamber of Mines figures show small-scale miners producing more gold than the large mines that year. An audit in July 2025 found that only 316 of 1,278 small-scale permits were clean. GoldBod says it buys only from licensed aggregators. Mr Gyamfi has acknowledged that without tracing technology it is difficult to verify where gold comes from, and a track-and-trace system is promised by the end of 2026.

On 19 October, President Mahama said galamsey had destroyed about 12,000 acres and encroached on 48 of Ghana's 288 forest reserves. As of Monday afternoon, Jubilee House had not commented on the clip and the Attorney-General had not responded to the petition.