Ghanaian President John Mahama’s high-profile visit to London this week, designed to showcase Ghana as a premier destination for foreign investment, was overshadowed by controversy around the country’s mining sector, including bitter disputes with South African powerhouse, Gold Fields.
The Ghanaian leader met King Charles III and held talks with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as part of a programme aimed at promoting his flagship “Reset Agenda” and attracting fresh international capital into the West African nation.
But the visit coincided with mounting concerns among investors over legal disputes involving international mining companies, allegations of regulatory uncertainty and claims by critics that companies linked to the president’s brother, Ibrahim Mahama, are the main beneficiaries of changes in the sector.
At the centre of the controversy is London mining investor INIHC, the British subsidiary of Singapore investment group Ibaera Capital, which is locked in a battle over the billion-dollar Black Volta gold project.
The company is one of several foreign investors whose mining interests have become caught up in disputes involving Engineers & Planners (E&P), the mining company owned by Ibrahim Mahama and the only local company to benefit from changes in Ghana’s regulatory framework aimed at giving home-grown companies a larger stake in the industry.
Opposition politicians say the government is using the banner of “resource nationalism” to transfer strategic mining assets to politically connected interests. Wisdom Gomashie, the co-head of the opposition New Patriotic Party’s mining committee, described the new mining codes as “an outright land grab”.
“It is nothing more than a smoke screen for … appropriation. There is no indication or clarity on how Ghanaians will benefit …nor transparency on how they are being carried out. Without this, no investor will put money in the country,” he said.
The Mahama administration insists its reforms are designed to ensure Ghanaians receive a greater share of the benefits generated by the country’s mineral wealth.
Debate around the country’s gold sector has threatened to dominate discussion of Mahama’s trip.
“There is a huge contrast between investor concerns and the government’s Reset Agenda,” James Wallbank, a partner at Ibaera Capital, said. “There is no appetite to invest in Ghana at the moment.” The disputes had become emblematic of concerns over regulatory certainty, contract enforcement and the treatment of foreign investors.
Gold Fields has been a major investor in Ghana for more than three decades and is attempting to renew the mining leases for Tarkwa, its largest operation in Ghana and one of Africa’s most important gold mines. It is managing the transfer of the Damang mine to the Ghanaian state after the government’s decision not to renew that operation’s lease.
Complicating matters is a legal battle with E&P. E&P has reportedly submitted two claims against Gold Fields — a $474.9m claim relating to Tarkwa and a $264.7m claim relating to Damang. Gold Fields has rejected the claims.
Reuters reports that Ghana’s Minerals Commission has instructed major international miners to transition mining operations to local contractors by December 2026 or potentially face sanctions.