The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, continues to argue that Ghana’s lithium agreement with Atlantic Lithium of Australia is the greatest mining lease for the country.
Pressure has been increasing on the government to renegotiate the contract, but government officials’ statements and defenses depict a different image.
In comparison to other mining deals, the government claims it will receive 13% in royalties and a 30% interest in Atlantic Lithium.
In an interview with Bloomberg, the Lands Minister justified the agreement, claiming it will benefit Ghana and that the government is preserving as much of the value chain as possible.
“Green minerals, lithium, energy transition, and all of that, our president and his government have insisted that we treat these minerals differently from other minerals in the past, which is why we have come up with a policy on the management, exploitation, and utilization of the green minerals of our country, including lithium.”
“We have signed some deals with Atlantic Lithium, but we have done all of that in a manner that is fundamentally different from what we did in the past and most importantly, the remarkable difference between what we did in the past and what we are doing now is that we are retaining the highest end of the value chain as much as possible.”
