The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, is still insisting that Ghana’s lithium deal with Atlantic Lithium of Australia remains the best mining lease for the country.
Pressure has been mounting on the government to reconsider the deal, but the utterances and defences by government machinery paint a different picture.
The government says it will get 13 percent in royalties with a 30 percent stake in Atlantic Lithium compared to other mineral agreements.
The Lands Minister defended the deal in an interview with Bloomberg, saying it will be beneficial to Ghana and that the country is retaining the highest end of the value chain as much 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.”
