Govt Defends Northern Ashanti Mines Lease Termination over 15-year Non-Payment
The Minerals Commission has defended the Government of Ghana’s termination of the mining leases and prospecting licence of Northern Ashanti Mines Limited, formerly Owere Mines.
In a statement, it insisted that the action was lawful and followed due process after 15 years of non-payment of statutory fees.
According to the Commission, the leases were terminated strictly in accordance with the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703) and the Minerals and Mining (Licensing) Regulations, 2012 (L.I. 2176), as well as the terms of the agreements, following the company’s persistent and flagrant breaches of Ghanaian law.
The Commission explained that in January 2010, the Company acquired a mining lease covering 595 cadastral blocks in respect of the Owere Mines. Under section 24 of Act 703 and the terms of the mining lease agreement, the Company was required to pay Annual Mineral Right (AMR) fees to the Minerals Commission annually, which it failed to do.
On April 14, 2025, pursuant to section 68(2) of Act 703 and regulation 200(3) of L.I. 2176, the Commission issued Notices to Remedy Breach requiring the Company to settle outstanding AMR fees for the Mining Leases from 2010 to 2025, and for Prospecting Licences from 2019 to 2025.
“The total amount owed to the Commission in respect of the mining leases stood at US$8,330,000, while the amount owed in respect of prospecting licences was US$49,928. And yet, the Company failed to comply within the stipulated period,” the statement said.
It further established that the Company had not undertaken any meaningful mining operations on the concession for a period exceeding two years, in direct contravention of section 69(1) of Act 703.
Following the failure to remedy the breaches, a year after the notice, the Minerals Commission, on April 7, 2026, notified the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources with a request to serve a notice of termination. The Minister approved the issuance on April 24, 2026, after which the Commission proceeded to act accordingly on April 30, 2026.
“The Minerals Commission wishes to categorically state that it acted lawfully and followed due process at every stage. The Company was given every opportunity to regularise its position and yet chose not to. The law is the law. Mineral rights are not an inheritance,” the Commission stated.
It added that once granted, a holder must abide by the rules, whether they are an indigenous company or not, and this includes the payment of statutory fees and the undertaking of meaningful mining operations.
The Commission said once the mineral rights were terminated, they reverted to the State as the lawful owner without prejudice to all the liabilities assumed by the company prior to termination, including its “humongous indebtedness”. It stressed that it reserves the right and shall pursue the company to pay all sums owed to the State.
The State, it said, also has the responsibility to protect and secure the assets that have reverted to it from being dissipated or overrun by encroachers or other illegal actors, noting that the mining laws have adequate provision for the status of mining assets on termination under section 70 of Act 703.
The Commission further disclosed that the Company has instituted legal proceedings against the State challenging the termination after duly acknowledging receipt of the termination notice.
“Having done so, it is improper and contemptuous of the judicial process for the Company to simultaneously resort to the court of public opinion, peddling false narratives and soliciting sympathy for a matter it flagrantly violated,” the statement said.
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