Ghana is seeking to become the world’s leading producer of lithium once production starts at the Ewoyaa Mines in the Central Region.
Amidst the controversies surrounding Ghana’s lithium lease agreement, Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor is already targeting Ghana overtaking Australia which is currently the largest producer of the commodity.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, December 15, the Minister confirmed that the country is anticipating to mine 350,000 tonnes of lithium per anum which is the largest in the world.
“We are going to mine 350,000 tonnes per year – that is about five times the biggest in the world. Ghana is about to become the biggest lithium mining country in the world,” he said.
According to him, the concession given to the mining firm is the biggest in the world.
He also revealed that the off-taker agreement in the contract which will enable Atlantic Lithium to sell the portions of the mined lithium to Piedmont, an American company is yet to be approved by the government.
“That off-taker agreement is yet to be presented to the Minerals Commission for onward transmission to my office and examined thoroughly,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mining Investment Expert, Dan McConvey is backing the government’s lithium deal describing the terms as generous.
In an interview on JoyNews’ Upfront, the Canadian with about 4 decades of mining experience explained that the deal is indeed one of the best in the sub-region.
“I think the agreement is generous…it’s going to be debated on and changed over time,” he stressed.
But Imani Africa’s Bright Simons disagrees.
He insists that Mr. McConvey is comparing apples to oranges.
“That is not the right way to look at it because those minerals that we’ve signed those types of contracts with are very established global minerals trading for years. They are commoditised. Lithium is a scarce mineral slowly becoming more available and you cannot use the strategy we use for gold for lithium, we cannot use contracts that we’ve signed for gold to benchmark contracts we are signing for lithium,” he said.
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