Mali Has 2 Mines, Nigeria Has 4 — Ghana Has NONE! Ashigbey Slams Lithium Lease Stalemate
Ing. Dr. Ken Ashigbey, the CEO of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, has urged the quick confirmation of Atlantic Lithium’s mining lease, warning that protracted delays are costing Ghana its competitive advantage in the subregion as well as economic prospects. In an interview with Joy News after fresh talks on the project, Dr. Ashigbey emphasized that while Ghana’s lithium industry has stagnated, neighboring nations are making significant progress. Mali has began mining lithium for the second time. About four of them have been carried out by Nigeria. In a field that is anticipated to influence the global energy transition, Ghana runs the danger of lagging behind other nations, he said. He disclosed that even before activities formally started, Atlantic Lithium had already shown significant economic potential at the project site. He claimed that without extracting “a single ton or a gram of lithium,” the firm had risen to the top of the Mankessim district’s tax-paying hierarchy. Nearly 100 employment had already been established in advance of the project’s launch, according to Dr. Ashigbey, but many of these individuals are now stuck because of the lengthy delays. “Most of those people have had to suffer because of the delay in starting,” he said. “There are also compensations that were meant to be paid, but they haven’t been paid yet.” He went on to say that training initiatives, skill-building opportunities, and other project-related social benefits had also been halted. The CEO of the Chamber of Mines attributed the recent setback to the disputes surrounding the mining lease when it was initially presented to Parliament last year, stating that the country and the host towns had suffered greatly as a result of the standoff. He emphasized that “the fiscal benefits we were supposed to have received, the jobs we should have created, the implications for the people, and the implications for us as a country have all suffered.” According to Dr. Ashigbey, expediting the ratification procedure is essential if Ghana is to guarantee its position in the developing African lithium market and prevent more financial losses.
