Akonta Mining Company Limited has filed a lawsuit against Ghana’s Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, and the Minerals Commission, in response to the government’s recent cancellation of its mining lease over alleged illegal mining activities in forest reserves.
The suit, filed on April 29, comes just days after the government announced that the company’s license had been revoked for encroaching on protected forest lands. Authorities accuse the company of conducting operations without the required permits in the Aboi and Tano Nimiri Forest Reserves, located in Ghana’s Western North Region.
“Although Akonta Mining holds a license to operate off-reserve, the company had encroached on the Aboi and Tano Nimiri Forest Reserves in the Western North Region,” Minister Armah-Kofi Buah said during a press briefing in Accra on April 21.
According to the minister, recent undercover investigations found that the company had also commercialized access to the forest areas. He alleged that Akonta Mining sold illegal concessions for as much as GHS 300,000 and that some miners were required to pay “up to 250 grams of gold weekly in royalties” to the company.
Akonta Mining has denied the allegations and is seeking GHS 20 million in damages for defamation, as well as a court order for a full retraction and public apology.
From the company’s official statement of claim:
“Special/aggravated damages for libel published by the Defendant herein and republished by local and international media in the sum of Ghc20,000,000 (Twenty Million Ghana Cedis).”
In addition to the damages, Akonta Mining is demanding:
“An order compelling the Defendant to retract the defamatory statements published against the Plaintiff Company and issue an unqualified public apology with equal prominence across media platforms, including television, radio, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X.”
The company is also seeking a perpetual injunction to bar the Minister from making further statements, reimbursement of legal fees, and “any other relief the court may deem appropriate.”
Neither the Minerals Commission nor the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has issued a formal response to the lawsuit.
Statement Below;
