Amid the controversy over the Tarkwa Mine lease renewal, natural resource governance expert, Dr. Steve Manteaw, has cautioned against the growing public pressure calling for the non-renewal of the Gold Fields lease application.
The natural resource governance expert says the arguments against the lease renewal are “misplaced and completely ill-informed.”
His comments come amid an intensifying national debate over whether the 20-year lease extension application by Gold Fields for operations at the Tarkwa Mine should be approved, with civil society groups, including the Institute of Economic Affairs, arguing for greater Ghanaian control of mineral resources and a rethink of long-term foreign concessions.
Dr. Manteaw, however, cautioned that such calls risk ignoring Ghana’s historical experience with direct state control of mining, which he said previously resulted in significant inefficiencies and financial losses.
According to him, it was the entry of foreign direct investment (FDI) that helped to salvage the situation and transform the sector into one of the country’s key revenue earners and employment hubs.
“Calls for the non-renewal of Goldfields’ Lease are misplaced and completely ill-informed. Let’s be careful,” Dr. Steve Manteaw noted.
He further explained that the central challenge in Ghana’s mining industry is not ownership alone, but governance. He cited how mineral revenues are managed and deployed as an area that needs improvement. In his view, the persistent prioritisation of recurrent expenditure over long-term capital investment continues to weaken the developmental impact of resource wealth.
“Ghana once had total control of its gold mining and ran huge losses. It took FDI to change the situation,” he cautioned, arguing that policy debate should focus more on efficiency, accountability, and revenue use rather than ownership-driven emotional arguments.
He continued, “What we fundamentally need to fix in the mining industry is the management and use of mineral revenues. Prioritizing recurrent expenditure over capital projects is partly why we are where we are. Time to do for mining, what we have so brilliantly done for oil.”
For now, the country is heavily polarized on the subject matter. While the Ghana Chamber of Mines has consistently defended the role of long-term mining leases in attracting investment, technology transfer, and community development, sections of the public and civil society groups aligned with resource nationalism have expressed concern about profit repatriation and limited local control.
As consultations continue, Dr. Manteaw is urging policymakers to avoid what can be described as populist policy shifts, warning that abrupt changes in ownership structures could undermine investor confidence and reverse gains made in the mining sector over the past decades.
