The Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Isaac Tandoh, has affirmed Ghana’s readiness to assume full control of the Damang Mine following the government’s decision not to renew Gold Fields’ mining lease, which expires in April 2025.
Speaking on the future of the site on the Citi Breakfast Show on April 15, 2025, Mr. Tandoh stressed that while the country continues to welcome foreign investments, mining agreements cannot last indefinitely.
“We support foreign investments, but agreement cannot be in perpetuity. At a point in time, certain things will have to revert to normal. So, those who have an agreement, we will support them to do their work, but when the agreement is over, and you have a better proposition, we will look at it. If not, we will take over the place,” he stated.
When asked what Ghana intends to do with the Damang mine after Gold Fields’ departure, Mr. Tandoh stated bluntly, “We will run it.”
He dismissed concerns over Ghana’s capacity to manage the mine, indicating that there are several unmined smaller pits within the Damang concession that local expertise can immediately begin working on.
To him, the country can, over time, revisit and strategise on developing the larger capital-intensive parts of the mine, which Gold Fields has delayed investing in since 2018.
He also highlighted that the technical know-how required for mining is not in short supply locally.
“People have been talking about capacity and capital and all… there are smaller pits they didn’t complete in mining them out, we can commence mining. We have a lot of local capacity rock shove, BCMs, engineers and planners; all these guys are in there that we can use to start the mining. Then we can get to the drawing board and strategise the big capital which they have been differing since 2018, to see how we can come back,” he stated.
“The whole of the Damang stretch it is only one expatriate that is running. In Tarkwa, Ghanaians are running them and same as Ahafo. So the issue of human capacity or technical knowhow is neither here nor there,” he stated.
Tandoh further revealed that all discussions held so far point to a state-led operation of the Damang Mine after Gold Fields’ exit.
“In all the meetings I have been in and all the discussions I have had, we are looking at the state running the mine. No individual will be made to do that,” he added.