The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi Boasiako, also known as Chairman Wontumi, has revealed his huge discovery of lithium deposits.

In an interview on Asempa FM Ekosii Sen programme Friday, he disclosed that, his company AkosDwomo at Essiam in Mankessim of the Central region has made a lot of progress and has stated drilling as part of the prospecting process.

“We have done a lot of work and the Minerals Commission as well as the Minerals Income Investment Fund is aware of our operations because we apply for the lease and embarked on negotiations,” he said.

Mr Antwi Boasiako said he is proud to be the first local company to start lithium exploration in Ghana.

Asked about his source of funding and if he was into any partnership, he said, “This was possible through the intervention individual Ghanaians but we are still seeking financial support for the next stage.”

Chairman Wontumi made the revelation while reacting to the controversies surrounding the lithium lease granted Barari DV to start mining at a 42.6-kilometre site at Ewoyaa in Central Region.

Despite the government’s stance that the deal is in the best interest of citizens, critics have argued it grants Barari BV overly generous terms, including a low royalty rate and a long exploration period.

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Play the full interview above:

Amidst the controversies surrounding Ghana’s lithium lease agreement, Lands Minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor is already targeting Ghana overtaking Australia which is currently the largest producer of the commodity.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, December 15, the Minister confirmed that the country is anticipating to mine 350,000 tonnes of lithium per anum which is the largest in the world.

“We are going to mine 350,000 tonnes per year – that is about five times the biggest in the world. Ghana is about to become the biggest lithium mining country in the world,” he said.

According to him, the concession given to the mining firm is the biggest in the world.

He also revealed that the off-taker agreement in the contract which will enable Atlantic Lithium to sell the portions of the mined lithium to Piedmont, an American company is yet to be approved by the government.

“That off-taker agreement is yet to be presented to the Minerals Commission for onward transmission to my office and examined thoroughly,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mining Investment Expert, Dan McConvey is backing the government’s lithium deal describing the terms as generous.

In an interview on JoyNews’ Upfront, the Canadian with about 4 decades of mining experience explained that the deal is indeed one of the best in the sub-region.

“I think the agreement is generous…it’s going to be debated on and changed over time,” he stressed.

But Imani Africa’s Bright Simons disagrees.

He insists that Mr. McConvey is comparing apples to oranges.

“That is not the right way to look at it because those minerals that we’ve signed those types of contracts with are very established global minerals trading for years. They are commoditised. Lithium is a scarce mineral slowly becoming more available and you cannot use the strategy we use for gold for lithium, we cannot use contracts that we’ve signed for gold to benchmark contracts we are signing for lithium,” he said.

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He argues that taking into consideration all the uncertainties surrounding lithium and its future in the green revolution it was necessary for the government to position itself much favourably in the deal.

He said the government should have approached the deal from a real options point of view.

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, Bright Simons explained the real options point of view as follows;

“What that simply means is that instead of this very simple agreement that they’ve done – in some cases there is a benefit in simplicity but in this case we don’t think so. We think there has to be more options in the agreement in some of the respect.

“We’ve talked already about royalties, when the operating margin changes we think that the royalties should be variable. We think even in the case of equity, the way they should exercise the equity is not the way they’ve done it now, which is they’ve done it in a two-pronged manner.

“For the government it’s a fixed kind of thing and we say in the future we may negotiate for more. For MIIF, which is the sovereign wealth fund, they’ve allowed them to use warrant which is a kind of option. So what it means is that they have the right and not the obligation to buy more if the price improves.

“But there are other options that we can use and why not use it for the state too? Because MIIF, given the fact that they can easily exit their position given the fact that they’re a sovereign wealth fund as opposed to the state where the regiment is much more stricter, we’re not too happy that the state is not using options, not using warrants. And not just warrants to exercise when the strike price is at a certain level, we want warrant that do other things as well.”

He added that, while lithium is the raging trend today, there are aggressive campaigns to find a more sustainable substitute for the mineral.

This he says puts the government in a precarious situation if it continues to be overly enthusiastic about the mineral instead of being objective as it forges ahead to ratify the deal.

“And we think that the agreement is too simplistic given the uncertainties in lithium. If you’re doing gold we’ll not have a problem. But lithium, a lot of crazy things are going on. For one thing there’s a lot of aggressive push, massive and aggressive push to look for alternatives to lithium based batteries.

“Laboratories all over the world, some of them funded to the tune of billions of dollars are experimenting with all manner of battery technologies. A time may come when lithium in batteries are not the big deal in electric vehicles, it’s possible. We don’t know that.

“There’s a recycling boom where after using the electric battery – remember that batteries for NMC for instance is just four years, after four years the charging ratios drops to as low as 20% and people just change it. So when you throw away the battery, nowadays people are recycling the lithium and that boom is increasing. A time may come when we’re getting more lithium from the discarded batteries than we’re mining afresh. We don’t know yet,” he said.

Bright Simmons noted that a recent crash in the price of lithium is also of major concern and buttresses points by the CSOs that the government needs to be extra careful before proceeding with any deal.

“All of those things plus of course, the thing that everybody is talking about, the massive crash in prices, prices have dropped from a high of about 81,000 dollars a tonne for lithium carbonate and hydroxide to something like 16,500 dollars this month.

“So that’s a massive drop in value, so we don’t really know what is happening with this lithium thing that therefore require that we’re very careful in the way we structure the agreement to take into account the uncertainty,” he said.

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The chief has describe the protest as “needless” and an attempt by the organisers to tarnish the image of the Traditional Council.

The demonstration turned chaotic after the residents were denied entry into the Effutu Municipal Assembly to present a petition.

The irate protesters pelted stones and caused the injury of some policemen, leading to the arrest of 10.

The concerned residents clad in red apparel said the site being given to the investor is the same site they use in hunting deer for the annual Aboakyire festival.

But speaking on Adom FM Burning Issues, the chief said the organisers did not consult them before the demonstration.

He explained that, when information got to them about a proposed mining of lithium in the area, three Paramount chiefs held a press conference and petitioned all relevant stakeholders to register their displeasure.

Nenyi Ghartey noted that, the Lands Commission in response to their petition debunked the rumours.

“We were satisfied with the response from the Lands Commission and that brought the matter to rest,” he told show host, Afia Boakyewaa Yiadom.

In this regard, he said the chiefs were surprised to see the youth on the streets, considering the progress they had made on the issue.

Nenyi Ghartey emphasised that, the chiefs had no hand in the demonstration.

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 Australian mining company, Atlantic Lithium Limited, is expected to start production in 2026 which will create between 1,000 to 2000 jobs in the Central Region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the West African Mining Conference, Chief Executive Officer, Keith Muller, expressed optimism about receiving a permit and obtaining a mining license by the end of September 2023.

“I’ve been quite surprised about the level of engagements we’ve had with the Minerals Commission. I think its CEO has done a sterling job in assisting us in the process of obtaining a permit. We’ve never been this close to obtaining a mining license. We’re very excited and we believe it will happen in the next couple of weeks, if not by the end of this month”.

“The company will generate in excess of $6.6 billion. More than half of it will go to the benefit of Ghana in the form of taxes, royalties, company salaries, and contracts to the locals,” he stated.

Lithium, a soft, silvery-white alkali metal has become a critical element in today’s world, particularly due to advancements in vehicle manufacturing. This lightweight and highly conductive metal is in high demand, primarily for its use in electric vehicles.

Mr. Muller said Ghana will soon make a mark in the electric vehicle market.

“We’ve been operating in Ghana since 2016. Seven years ago, lithium was not a hot commodity as it is now. So we’ve been putting efforts into the country, we’ve invested almost $40 million till date. The main consumer of lithium is the electric vehicle market”.

“We’ve got a close partnership with American company, Piedmont Lithium, to receive half of our concentrate and the other half is quite incumbent so there’s quite a potential to do something with that with interested parties,” he added.

The Australian government and its partners organised the West African Mining Conference.

According to the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, Berenice Owen-Jones, the conference sought to encourage mining companies to operate in a safe environment as well as address increasing jihadists’ violence.

“We have brought together a range of security analysts, mining companies, governments and diplomats from around the world to analyse the security situation in the sub-region and also to look at how to mitigate that risk. Also, to look at how to have mining companies operate in a more secure and stable environment”.

“This is the third edition of the West African Mining Conference, and unfortunately, we notice that every year the security outlook becomes more complicated. So this reinforces the point that it is a very timely conference,” she pointed out.

Security analyst, Adib Saani, made an appeal for intensified efforts in ensuring security in the mining sector.

“Even though we benefit economically and financially from the mining sector, there are a lot of challenges in the mining sector that need to be addressed. Also, we have the issue of the possibility of explosives meant for the mining sector, diverted to other sources.

“Ghana continues to be a logistics hub for terrorists, and on several occasions, vehicles filled with explosive-making materials that are suspected to be coming from the mining sector have been impounded in other countries such as Burkina Faso and Mali, only for investigations to reveal that they had come from Ghana.”

The West African Mining Conference was themed “Operating in challenging environments”.

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According to him, the chemical was discovered in parts of Cape Coast in the Central Region during an exploration exercise.

Mr Ayisi revealed this on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem while speaking about Ghana’s 20 land minerals which he noted contribute a lot of revenue to Ghana’s exports.

The lithium, the CEO explained, as in large quantities.

This comes on the back of an announcement by Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, that a total of four new large-scale mining companies are expected to start operations in Ghana within the next 24 months.

Taking his turn at the weekly Minister’s brief­ing organised by the Ministry of Information last week, Mr Jinapor explained the new mines will comprise three gold mining firms and one lithium mining com­pany.

These companies, he noted, would boost the country’s mining receipts as well as create new employment opportunities for the youth.

He stated the four which include Ahafo North, Azumah Resources, Ewoyaa and Cardinal Resources will be located in the Ahafo, Upper East and West and Central Regions.

Meanwhile, the Commission in January 2018 announced the discovery of Lithium in commercial quantities in the Volta Region.

The then CEO, Kwaku Addai Antwi-Boasiako stated mining activities will start but the commission first wanted to attract investments into the region.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako assured Ghanaians the Minerals Commission will follow due process in issuing licenses to companies to mine the mineral, emphasizing it will consider electronic applications from interested investors to avoid issues of corruption.

Lithium, among the top 10 most expensive minerals in the world can be used for the manufacture of batteries, heat-resistant glass, and ceramics while Lithium stearate is mixed with oils to make all-purpose and high-temperature lubricants.

Lithium hydroxide is used to absorb carbon dioxide in space vehicles and it is alloyed with aluminium, copper, manganese, and cadmium to make high-performance alloys for aircraft.

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Lithium metal has the highest specific heat of any solid element and it is sometimes used as battery anode material electrochemical potential).

Lithium-based compounds such as lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) are used as drugs to treat manic-depressive disorders.