Ghana’s cabinet has approved a new policy for the exploitation, management and regulation of lithium and other green minerals in the country, a report by the state-owned Daily Graphic has revealed.
Lithium is used in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras and electric vehicles.
It is also used in some non-rechargeable batteries for things like heart pacemakers, toys and clocks.
The West African nation, recently, discovered lithium in the Central Region, and according to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor the new policy would lead to legislative interventions by Parliament, including an amendment of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006(Act 703), with relevant processes already begun.
The Minister noted that while Act 703 set the rate for mineral royalties at between three to five per cent, the new policy would see a different royalty regime for green minerals.
“I wrote to the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission last week and asked him to present to me a strategy document within a week for the implementation of the tenets of this policy. We want to get on with this as quickly as possible,” Mr Jinapor said as quoted by Daily Graphic.
“For some reason, I will not give the rate for the green mineral royalties yet, but suffice it to say that it is going to be higher than what we have now relating to gold. The point is that we have a different royalty regime for green minerals as opposed to gold and others,” he said.
The Minister also said the new policy would insist on a higher level of local participation in the green minerals value chain as opposed to the 10 per cent vested interest the state had currently in mining entities.
“We will insist on a certain minimum Ghanaian participation that will be more and better than the 10 per cent. I am reluctant to put specific figures out now on this. There is a Cabinet decision on a baseline, and we will not go below that in any negotiation for our lithium and other green minerals,” he said.
Mr Jinapor added that the overarching goal of the new policy was anchored on the principle that the exploitation of green minerals must benefit Ghanaians who are the true owners of the resource.
He said given that principle, building blocks for the green minerals exploitation would be different from what existed with gold in particular.
Globally, it is estimated that the lithium industry alone is valued at US$11 billion at the mining stage, with the value of the industry at the highest end estimated at US$7 trillion.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com