A public financial management expert has petitioned the Council of State to intervene in the debate over the proposed non-renewal of Gold Fields Ghana Limited's mining lease in Tarkwa, warning that denying the lease would collapse the very Ghanaian businesses it claims to champion.
The petition, submitted by Derrick Opare Asamoah on July 1, 2026, comes in response to calls by the Institute of Economic Affairs for the government to reject Gold Fields' application for a lease renewal when the current concession expires in April 2027. The IEA argues that Ghana must reclaim ownership of the mine to secure greater national benefit from its mineral wealth.
However, the petition contends that the proposed solution of outright lease denial would be "dangerously self-defeating". "To understand why, we must examine what the Tarkwa mine represents and what is actually at stake," Mr Asamoah wrote in the petition.
The Tarkwa mine is one of Africa's largest open-pit gold operations, producing approximately 500,000 ounces annually.
The petition argues that Ghana currently lacks the capacity to take over and operate a mine of this scale successfully. "Our country has struggled to mobilise even $20 million for small-scale mineral exploration. No Ghanaian entity has ever operated a mine of this scale and technical complexity," it states.
Mr Asamoah further warned that lease denial would disrupt a thriving ecosystem of Ghanaian businesses that have grown around the Tarkwa operation. He said Engineers and Planners, a Ghanaian-founded enterprise, is now one of the country's largest mining contractors. ZEN Petroleum Holdings, listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange, counts Gold Fields among its key business partners. Nearly 100 local vendors depend on the mine for their livelihoods.
He said Gold Fields' local procurement from Ghanaian-owned businesses has reached 93 per cent in the last five years, with over $4.26 billion spent in-country and $2.59 billion going directly into host communities. The company has paid $3.3 billion in taxes, royalties, and dividends to the state.
The petition also raises concerns about Ghana's investment climate, noting that the country has already slipped in the Fraser Institute's Global Mining Investment Attractiveness Index from 46th out of 82 jurisdictions in 2024 to 53rd out of 68 in 2025, driven by policy uncertainty. "Arbitrary lease denial, absent any finding of non-compliance by the operator, would accelerate this decline, triggering capital flight and reduced foreign direct investment across the entire mining sector," it warns.
Instead of lease denial, the petition recommends strategic renegotiation with Gold Fields, including the acquisition of additional equity stakes for the state through the Minerals Income Investment Fund, following the model Botswana employed with Debswana. It also calls for a mandatory Mining Community Development Fund financed from mine revenues and a comprehensive National Resource Participation Strategy with clear localisation and ownership targets.
The petition concludes: "We do not oppose greater Ghanaian ownership of our resources. We advocate for it. But the path to ownership lies through negotiation, capacity building, and strategic legislation—not through administrative actions that would collapse the ecosystem we seek to strengthen."
