By Adnan Adams Mohammed
Behind closed doors in Parliament, six major mining leases were quietly pushed through to ratification.
On paper, the multi-million-dollar deals involving global and local giants, including Golden Star (Wassa) Limited, Perseus Mining, Maripoma Mining Services, and Damang Gold Mine, promise national revenue and job creation. Beneath the surface, an investigative trail reveals systemic oversights, missing mandatory state shares, and questions over who is safeguarding Ghana’s mineral wealth.
The approvals come at a time of growing public demand for resource transparency. Yet, critical documentation reviewed during the ratification process suggests the state’s regulatory apparatus failed to perform basic, legally required due diligence before putting the nation’s assets on the block.
The Missing 10 Percent
Under Ghanaian law, the state is automatically entitled to a mandatory 10 percent free-carried interest in all commercial mining ventures, a non-negotiable stake intended to ensure the public directly benefits from the extraction of its gold reserves.
However, an analysis of the ratified lease packages reveals that this statutory guarantee was mysteriously omitted from several finalized agreements presented to lawmakers.
Exposing the discrepancy at a press briefing in Parliament, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong, Ranking Member on the Lands and Natural Resources Committee, pointed directly to regulatory failure at the highest level.
“Perhaps more troubling was the omission in several leases of the Republic of Ghana’s statutory 10% free carried interest,” Ampratwum-Sarpong stated. “That interest belongs to the people of Ghana. It is neither optional nor discretionary and cannot simply be omitted from mining agreements placed before Parliament for ratification.”
The omission raises serious questions about who stood to gain from unallocated equity, and why the state’s key monitoring agency failed to catch the error before submitting the documents to cabinet and Parliament.
Operational Blindspots and ‘Shoddy’ Due Diligence
The regulatory lapses extend beyond revenue. In multiple instances, mining firms were granted Parliament’s seal of approval without attaching mandatory environmental impact analyses or operational programs, the foundational blueprints that detail how land will be exploited, restored, and protected.
Despite these gaps, the Parliamentary Committee on Lands and Natural Resources approved the Minerals Commission’s vetting, relying on boilerplate assurances of corporate compliance.
“The lease agreements made express provisions prohibiting the companies from conducting any operations within 100 metres of any forest reserve, river, stream, building, installation, reservoir, dam, public road, railway or area appropriated for a railway without prior written authorization,” the Committee claimed in its official presentation, maintaining that standard entry permits would safeguard ecological zones.
Critics, however, view these clauses as regulatory theater that shifts the burden of proof after contracts are already signed. Opposing lawmakers argue that certifying leases without complete technical filings strips Parliament of its constitutional duty to hold exploiters accountable.
“The agreements contain significant inconsistencies and legal defects that should have been identified and corrected before they were presented to Parliament,” Ampratwum-Sarpong urged. “Parliament cannot compromise the national interest by approving defective mining leases involving Ghana’s mineral wealth without the level of scrutiny that the Constitution demands. It appears the Minerals Commission did a shoddy job and exercised poor diligence in ensuring that the lease documents were in proper conformity with the law.”
Demands for Accountability
The rushed ratification of the six agreements has triggered calls for an independent audit of the Minerals Commission’s entire leasing framework.
Governance experts and opposition MPs are demanding to know why state negotiators routinely settle for the bare legal minimum, or less, rather than pushing for higher equity returns, such as negotiating up to a 30% state stake in legacy concessions like the Damang Gold Mine.
With the deals now legally ratified, civil society groups and accountability advocates are preparing to challenge the review process, warning that allowing flawed lease pipelines to operate unchecked compromises Ghana’s sovereignty over its natural resources for decades to come.
