Mining Engineer and Consultant, Ing. Wisdom Gomashie, has cautioned against what he describes as Ghana’s recurring tendency to revive calls for resource nationalism whenever the lease of a foreign mining company approaches expiration.
He argues that national conversations about Ghanaian ownership of mines should be driven by long-term frameworks and strategies rather than reactions to expiring mining leases.
The mining engineer and consultant made this case when he spoke to The High Street Journal on the sidelines of the just-ended WAMPEX 2026.
“All the discussions surround when a major mining company’s lease is about to expire; then you see tendencies that Ghanaians can manage. But we cannot run the country like that. Our affinity towards nationalisation should not rise at the expiry of a company’s mining lease,” he remarked.
Resource Nationalism Should Not Be Event-Driven
According to Gomashie, debates about local ownership often intensify only when major mining leases are nearing renewal. He cited recent discussions surrounding the expiry of mining leases at Damang and Tarkwa as examples.
He stressed that the country cannot build a sustainable mining policy around such periodic sentiments. Instead, he called for a deliberate national framework that steadily increases Ghanaian participation in the sector regardless of lease renewal cycles.
“These things came up when Damang was about to expire. Then it went down. Gold Fields is about to expire, and it has come up again. We need to have a system,” he stressed.
Capital: The Real Barrier
For Wisdom Gomashie, the biggest obstacle preventing more Ghanaians from owning and operating large-scale mines is not access to mineral concessions but access to capital.
He questioned why more Ghanaian investors are not applying for mining concessions through the Minerals Commission if local participation is truly the goal.
He stressed that the opportunity exists. However, developing a mine requires significant financial resources, from exploration to production.
“What is stopping the Ghanaians from also going to the Minerals Commission to take land? Do you know why? It is capital,” he stressed.
He argued that meaningful participation must be built through investment and risk-taking rather than waiting for foreign operators to exit.
Ghanaian-Owned Mines Already Exist
The mining consultant rejected suggestions that Ghanaian participation in mining is entirely absent. He pointed to existing examples of local ownership within the sector, including Ghana Bauxite Company, which is majority Ghanaian-owned, as well as state-linked mining ventures such as Sankofa Prestea.
According to him, these examples demonstrate that ownership opportunities already exist for Ghanaians.
However, he was quick to add that the more important question is whether these operations have generated the same level of economic impact, investment and scale as multinational mining companies.
He said, “We have pockets of Ghanaian ownership activities, but it looks like their impact is not felt like the multinational mining companies.”
Nationalisation Requires More Than Ambition & Sentiments
Although he acknowledges desire among many Ghanaians to secure greater value from the country’s mineral resources, Ing. Gomashie maintained that the ingredients required for successful nationalisation are currently lacking.
He identified adequate capital, strong institutional capacity and a national mindset geared toward efficient mine management as critical prerequisites.
“As we speak today, we do not yet have all those ingredients in place,” he stated.
For him, the path forward lies in building Ghanaian capacity steadily and intentionally rather than allowing resource nationalism debates to flare up only when foreign mining leases come up for renewal.
