Zambia is moving to centralise the buying and export of gold as Government looks for tighter control over a sector that has expanded rapidly but remains difficult to trace.
The Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development is developing a proposed Zambia Gold Trade Agency, which would become the central channel for gold intended for export.
Permanent Secretary Hapenga Kabeta said the agency is currently at draft stage and undergoing legal consideration. Under the proposed arrangement, the entity would buy gold destined for export, with the Bank of Zambia able to acquire its share for reserves.
The move is part of a wider attempt to formalise Zambia's artisanal and small-scale gold sector.
From gold rush to formal market
Zambia's gold industry has traditionally received far less attention than copper.
That is changing.
A growing artisanal and small-scale mining sector has created new economic activity, but also concerns around illegal mining, smuggling, weak traceability and lost government revenue.
Government has already been working on formalisation through mining cooperatives, training and designated market infrastructure. Parliament was told in 2025 that Zambia Gold Company had been appointed as the gold aggregator and had begun buying gold at market centres in Rufunsa and Mumbwa.
The proposed Gold Trade Agency appears to take that approach further by creating a more centralised system for gold destined for export.
Traceability becomes the critical piece
Centralised buying alone will not solve the problem.
The gold needs to be traceable from the mine to the buyer.
That is why discussions between Government and the World Gold Council have included traceability technology, processing facilities and formal trading systems.
For Zambia, traceability could have implications well beyond enforcement.
It can help establish where gold is coming from, whether miners are operating legally and how much of the country's production is actually entering formal markets.
The Minerals Regulation Commission Act already requires people trading minerals to hold the appropriate permit, while recognising gold as a precious metal.
The challenge is making the formal route commercially attractive enough for miners to use it.
The price of formalisation
This may ultimately be the most important question.
Small-scale miners will use formal channels if those channels provide a competitive price, reliable payment, accessible buying points and a process that is easier than selling through informal networks.
If compliance is expensive or cumbersome while informal buyers offer immediate cash, regulation alone may not be enough to change behaviour.
That is why the government's wider formalisation programme — including training and market access — matters.
Government has also been considering changes to the tax treatment of gold trading, following concerns raised by the World Gold Council about the cost of formal transactions. No new VAT rate has been announced, but the issue illustrates the balancing act involved in bringing more gold into the formal economy.
Processing could keep more value in Zambia
The other part of the equation is what happens after the gold is bought.
A more formal supply chain creates an opportunity for processing and refining capacity to develop locally.
A Zambian gold company is currently setting up a processing facility, according to the Ministry's latest engagement with industry stakeholders.
That matters because the economic value of gold is not limited to extraction.
Buying, processing, refining, logistics, testing and financial services can all form part of a domestic gold economy.
Zambia has spent decades building its mining economy around copper. Gold presents an opportunity to develop another mineral value chain — but only if production can be brought into a system that is transparent, competitive and commercially viable.
The proposed agency is still at the drafting stage.
Its real significance will therefore depend less on the name of the institution than on whether it can make formal gold trading easier, traceable and worthwhile for the people producing the metal.
Zambia may have more gold than its official export figures suggest. The challenge now is to build a system capable of showing exactly where it comes from, who buys it and how much value remains in the country.
