The Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, says outstanding statutory debt alone should not be sufficient grounds for revoking the mining lease of Northern Ashanti Mines, and has urged government to negotiate payment arrangements with the company.
He argues that keeping a mining business operational should be in the interest of regulators because it enables the company to generate revenue and settle its outstanding obligations.
“I don’t think indebtedness constitutes enough grounds for the revocation of a licence. It does not. But if there are serious technical breaches, then we can talk about revocation. But if somebody owes you, you sit down and negotiate for the payment,” he said.
Speaking on Accra-based Joy FM, Dr Manteaw was responding to the Minerals Commission’s claim that Northern Ashanti Mines owes more than US$8.38 million in statutory fees.
He said government should pursue a less confrontational approach to resolving the dispute, particularly as it seeks to increase Ghanaian participation in the mining sector.
“And it should be in your interest that that business exists and thrives in order to pay what it owes you,” he said.
Dr Manteaw also expressed concern about the handling of the dispute, saying it appeared to support allegations that Ghanaian-owned mining companies were being unfairly targeted.
He warned that revoking leases and shutting down local mining businesses over financial difficulties could undermine government’s policy of placing Ghanaians at the centre of the country’s mineral industry.
“A Ghanaian mining company may have a problem, but once you want to localize our mining industry, you don’t revoke leases and close them down by fiat. You identify the challenges they are going through and help them to overcome the challenges,” he said.
He added that the handling of such disputes could send negative signals to investors and creditors considering financing local mining operations.
Dr Manteaw called for the Northern Ashanti Mines dispute, involving the Konongo Mine, to be considered alongside the challenges facing Adamus Resources in the Ellembelle area.
He noted that President John Dramani Mahama had issued a directive and a roadmap to resolve the Adamus dispute, and urged government not to treat the two cases separately.
“Let us not treat Konongo separately from Ellembelle. For me, it’s one problem of indebtedness and challenges,” he said.
Dr Manteaw maintained that while regulators could take action over serious technical breaches, companies facing debt challenges should be given the opportunity to negotiate and resolve their obligations.
He appealed to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources to find a less acrimonious way of handling the matter, warning that the current approach could undermine confidence in government’s commitment to promoting local ownership of the mining sector.
“It’s not reflecting well on government,” he added.
