Government not being truthful about terms of lithium mining deal - Bright Simons

Vice President of policy think tank, IMANI Africa, Bright Simons, has called out Ghanaian authorities for not being truthful about the true terms of Ghana's first lithium mining deal.

According to him, the rosy fiscal gains that the government says Ghana will derive from the deal with Atlantic Lithium are not real and therefore demand that the truth be told to citizens.

In a write-up sighted by GhanaWeb Business, Bright Simons pointed that a very major component of the fiscal gains are corporate taxes and indications that Atlantic Lithium's will be given a 10-year holiday only means that "the country will lose a major component of the expected gains under the agreement - the corporate taxes - and therefore the government's claim that it is the best mining deal ever cannot be true."

"Under the Free Zones program, taxes drop to 8% or even below after ten years. This means that Atlantic Lithium will virtually pay no tax during the 12 years in which it will be mining lithium under the contract. The argument that the deal is better than all mining deals in the country is thus discredited," he wrote.

"It is also untrue that Ghana will eventually get 30% in the deal because the investments we make aside the 13% "free/carried interest" will end up being diluted. That is how come we used to have 55% in Anglogold Ashanti but now have only 0.04%. Ghana was diluted down as new investors came on board," Bright Simons said.

He further questioned the claim by the government that the Australian firm did not come with enough funds to invest in data gathering.

"It sold forward the lithium that it will be mining to raise just $17 million to do the exploratory work," he pointed out.

He further accused the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Martin Ayisi, of peddling misinformation about the deal while antagonising CSOs who spoke against the terms of the transaction.

Meanwhile, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has also kicked against Ghana's first lithium mining agreement, describing it as no different to that of colonial type agreements, leaving Ghana with only a 10% share of the profits.

She also described the deal as not being in the interest of Ghanaians and called out the framers of the deal for moving ahead with a poorly negotiated deal which was unfavourable.

The government of Ghana in a bid to tap into the vast lithium deposits in Ewoyaa, Central Region, signed a deal with Barari DV Ghana Limited to explore and mine lithium in Ghana.

Read Bright Simons' full write-up below

Abusing truth in Ghana’s lithium deal

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