- IEA Urges Government to Reject Gold Fields’ Tarkwa Lease Extension
The Institute of Economic Affairs has urged the government not to renew Gold Fields’ mining lease for the Tarkwa mine, arguing that Ghana must use the lease’s pending expiration to reset its approach to strategic mineral ownership and retain more value from its natural resources. The IEA’s opposition comes as the Tarkwa lease nears expiration in 2027 and amid growing national debate over the role of foreign operators in Ghana’s mining sector, especially after the government declined to renew Gold Fields’ Damang lease.
Speaking at a press conference in Accra, former Chief Justice and IEA fellow Sophia Akuffo said the requested renewal or extension of Gold Fields’ Tarkwa lease would be against Ghana’s long-term economic and strategic interests.
“The IEA considers the requested lease renewal or extension… deeply inimical to Ghana’s long-term economic and strategic interests and therefore calls on the government to soundly reject this approach,” she said.
She urged the government to reject the lease renewal “decisively” and instead prioritise a framework that secures meaningful Ghanaian ownership of the Tarkwa mine.
The intervention follows comments by Gold Fields Group Chief Executive Officer Mike Fraser, that the company remains committed to investing heavily in the Tarkwa mine and had applied, since November 2025, for a 20-year lease extension. Mr Fraser said during a visit to the Apinto Divisional Stool at Awudua in the Western Region that Gold Fields’ Ghana operations accounted for 25 per cent of the group’s global production last year, making Tarkwa a critical asset in the company’s global portfolio.
The IEA, however, argues that the approaching expiration of the Tarkwa lease offers Ghana an opportunity to reconsider the structure of ownership and control in the mining sector. The policy institute maintains that Ghana’s mineral wealth should become a stronger foundation for national development, rather than remaining heavily dependent on foreign operators.
Founder and Chairman of the IEA, Dr Charles Mensa, linked the country’s repeated recourse to the International Monetary Fund to weak domestic control over strategic assets, noting that Ghana has gone to the Fund about 17 times.
“While we are selling our assets, we also have a huge low-hanging asset that we can tap into to pay our debts and to pay our way out into development, but those assets have been given away to foreign companies,” he said.
Former Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, also backed the call, arguing that Ghana should not renew leases that fail to prioritise national ownership and economic benefit. He said Ghana is in a stronger position to renegotiate because the Tarkwa lease is approaching expiration.
“The question is, should we bring them back to operate that which we know is our lifeblood? The answer is no, and it must be clearly no,” he said.
Prof Oquaye said Ghana must rethink its approach to gold, bauxite, manganese, diamond, lithium and oil resources if it is to overcome long-standing development challenges linked to weak resource governance.
The IEA’s position adds institutional weight to the growing pressure on government to scrutinise Gold Fields’ continuing role in Ghana’s mining sector. It also raises a broader policy question over whether the country should continue granting long-term mining lease renewals to foreign companies or move toward a more assertive model of local ownership, state participation and Ghanaian capital mobilisation.
The debate over Tarkwa is particularly significant because the mine remains one of Gold Fields’ most important global assets. For Ghana, however, the issue is whether the mine’s future should be judged only by production continuity and foreign investor confidence or by a wider national-interest test covering ownership, value retention, employment, local industrial capacity and fiscal benefit.
The IEA maintains that empowering indigenous businesses and promoting Ghanaian ownership in strategic sectors will help the country retain more value from its resources and reduce dependence on external financial support.
Government’s decision on the Tarkwa lease is therefore likely to become a defining test of Ghana’s emerging posture on natural resource sovereignty after the Damang lease decision. For Gold Fields, it is a major test of whether its long presence in Ghana will be enough to secure continued control of one of the country’s most productive gold assets.
