Ghana limits Gold Fields Mine acquisition to local companies

Ghana’s search for a new owner of a Gold Fields Ltd. mine that the government is about to take control of will be limited to locally owned companies.

Gold Fields previously considered whether to sell the Damang operation, but the government refused to renew the mine’s lease last year. Authorities then granted a 12-month extension, which required the company to ensure “the successful transition of the asset to ownership by the people of Ghana.”

The state is running a tender to select a company to take over the asset, and the deadline for offers is Tuesday. Only firms that are “100% owned by Ghanaian citizens” can participate in the process, according to a notice dated March 24 and signed by Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, minister for lands and natural resources.

Africa’s biggest gold producer is trying to increase local ownership in the industry. Major mines are currently owned by multinational firms such as AngloGold Ashanti Plc, Newmont Corp. and China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. Ltd. African governments from Mali to Zimbabwe are pushing for a larger share of the revenues generated by their natural resources.

Damang, which entered production almost 30 years ago, is one of two Ghanaian mines owned by Johannesburg-listed Gold Fields. Its output was 88,000 ounces of gold last year, about a third of its peak two decades ago. The company is due to transfer Damang to the government on April 18 and is also negotiating a lease extension for its larger Tarkwa operation.

Under a deal struck with the state, Gold Fields conducted a study on how to extend Damang’s life, which it has given to the government.

The eventual owner will need experience of open‑pit gold mining, the capacity to run the asset for at least another decade and access to more than $500 million in funding for project development, according to the tender document.

The last mature gold mine to come up for sale in Ghana was Akyem, which Zijin agreed to buy from Newmont for $1 billion in October 2024