- Tarkwa Lease Fight: Chamber Says Ghana Must Not Scare Mining Investors
The Ghana Chamber of Mines has pushed back strongly against the Institute of Economic Affairs’ call for the government to reject the renewal of Gold Fields’ Tarkwa mining lease, warning that such a move could undermine investor confidence, weaken security of tenure and unsettle one of Ghana’s most important foreign exchange and revenue-generating sectors.
In a detailed response during a press conference Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ing. Dr. Kenneth Ashigbey, the Chamber said the national conversation on mining must be based on evidence, historical context and a proper understanding of the economics of large-scale mining, rather than what it described as incomplete policy prescriptions.
The IEA has argued that Ghana should use the impending expiration of the Tarkwa lease as an opportunity to assert greater national control over strategic mineral assets. Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo and former Speaker of Parliament Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, speaking under the IEA platform, have urged the government to reject Gold Fields’ request for a lease extension and prioritise Ghanaian ownership.
But the Chamber says that argument risks oversimplifying Ghana’s mining history and ignoring the role private capital has played in rebuilding the sector after years of decline under state ownership.
“The statement contains material factual inaccuracies, relies on an incomplete reading of the sector’s history, and advances policy prescriptions that are inconsistent with established evidence on resource governance,” the Chamber said in its response to the IEA.
According to the Chamber, Tarkwa was once part of the State Gold Mining Corporation’s portfolio, but the era of extensive state dominance in mining was marked by declining output, chronic underinvestment, operational inefficiencies and sustained financial losses. It argued that the subsequent entry of private investment helped revive Ghana’s large-scale mining sector and reposition the country as a competitive mining jurisdiction.
The Chamber said large-scale gold production increased from 216,000 ounces in 1983 to nearly 3 million ounces in 2025, a transformation it linked to investor-led rehabilitation, modernisation, exploration and operational expansion. It further argued that the growth of large-scale mining had also helped build Ghana into a regional hub for mining services, engineering, contract mining, equipment supply and technical consultancy.
At the heart of the dispute is whether Ghana’s sovereignty over its mineral resources requires state or local operational control. The Chamber rejects that interpretation.
It said Ghana’s ownership of minerals is already secured under the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006, Act 703, which vests minerals in the President on behalf of the people. A mining lease, the Chamber argued, does not transfer ownership of the underlying mineral resource but only grants a limited right to extract and commercialise minerals under defined legal and regulatory conditions.
For the Chamber, the issue is not whether Ghana should benefit more from mining. It says Ghana should. The disagreement is over the route to that outcome.
The IEA’s position is rooted in the argument that Ghana has not received sufficient structural value from decades of foreign control over strategic mines. It reflects a growing public frustration that gold-rich communities such as Tarkwa still face infrastructure deficits, unemployment concerns and weak local economic transformation despite hosting some of the country’s most productive mineral assets.
But the Chamber insists the problem lies less with foreign operational control and more with Ghana’s mineral revenue distribution framework.
It disclosed that the three principal mining operations in Tarkwa Gold Fields, Ghana Manganese Company and AngloGold Ashanti Iduapriem paid about GH₵5.1 billion in taxes in 2024, representing 7.3 per cent of total direct domestic taxes collected by the Ghana Revenue Authority. Yet only a limited portion of mineral royalties goes directly to host communities and local assemblies.
The Chamber said it has consistently advocated for a minimum statutory allocation of 30 per cent of mineral royalty receipts to mining communities, arguing that this would better address development deficits in places such as Tarkwa than rejecting lease renewals or disrupting existing ownership arrangements.
On Gold Fields’ community contribution, the Chamber pointed to the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation, which it said has invested almost US$110 million since 2002 in corporate social responsibility programmes. These include the 33km Tarkwa-Damang Road, road rehabilitation works, the Tarkwa and Abosso Stadium, youth training, education, agriculture and health interventions. The Foundation, it said, is funded by US$1 for every ounce of gold sold and 1.5 per cent of pre-tax profits.
The Chamber also challenged the IEA’s suggestion that Ghana’s repeated recourse to the International Monetary Fund could be traced to foreign participation in mining. It argued instead that the mining sector has been a stabilising pillar of the economy, providing foreign exchange, fiscal revenues and external sector support during successive IMF programmes.
In 2025 alone, the Chamber said, mining contributed about GH₵19 billion in taxes, representing nearly 23 per cent of direct domestic tax collections. By contrast, it said small-scale mining produced more than 3 million ounces of gold, more than half of national output, but contributed under GH₵0.5 million in taxes. This comparison is likely to sharpen debate. For the Chamber, Ghana’s bigger fiscal leakage lies in the weak taxation and formalisation of small-scale mining. For the IEA, the bigger question remains whether large-scale foreign operators retain too much control over assets that should deliver deeper national transformation.
The Tarkwa lease renewal has therefore become a proxy battle over Ghana’s mining future. One side argues for resource sovereignty, local ownership and a break from inherited extractive arrangements. The other warns that undermining legal certainty and investor confidence could damage a sector that remains central to revenue, exports, jobs and Ghana’s standing as Africa’s leading gold producer. The Chamber said lease renewal processes already give government room to review and recalibrate terms, but insisted this must happen within the established legal framework.
Tarkwa is therefore no longer just about Gold Fields. It is about whether Ghana can design a mining compact that protects investor confidence while forcing a bigger share of mineral value into communities, local enterprise, public revenue and national development.
