China, US pressure Ghana to halt gold royalty hike, document, sources say
* China, the U.S. and other Western governments have mounted an unusually coordinated push to get Ghana to halt a gold royalty hike they say could harm some of the world's biggest miners, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter and a letter from an industry body. * Africa's largest gold producer wants to replace its fixed 5% royalty with a sliding scale between 5% and 12% linked to bullion prices – part of an effort to capture more revenue from gold's run to successive historic highs. * Miners said the upper bands of the new regime, which could take effect as early as next week unless amended or withdrawn, would make Ghana one of the continent's most expensive jurisdictions and could squeeze margins. * Diplomatic missions from the UK, Canada, Australia and South Africa have als intervened. * Ghana-linked producers have posted strong 2025 results, with Newmont (NEM.N) earning over $7 billion, Gold Fields (GFIJ.J) more than doubling and AngloGold Ashanti (AU.N) tripling profit, and Perseus (PRU.AX) making $421.7 million, up 16% year on year. #local