The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has laid the lithium mining lease agreement between the government of Ghana and Barari DV Ghana Limited in Parliament.

The agreement will allow for the mining of lithium and other rare earth minerals at Ewoyaa in the Central Region.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kinsford Bagbin, consequently referred it to the Lands and Forestry Committee of Parliament for consideration and report.

Unhappy with the laying of the agreement, the Minority Caucus argued that the terms of the agreement were similar to those in the earlier document first laid in the Eighth Parliament.

The Minority, therefore, urged the Speaker to overrule and reject the agreement.

In an explanatory statement to the House, Mr Buah said the lease for the agreement was presented in the previous Parliament for ratification pursuant to Article 268(1) of the Constitution and Section 543 of Act 703.

He said there was no right value for lithium before the Eighth Parliament adjourned.

He added that between the period the agreement was earlier drafted and now, the price of lithium had considerably reduced, putting the project “at risk going forward”.

Mr Buah said the Barrari DV Ghana Limited appealed that if it were to go on with the project, certain key provisions must be looked at.

With the fall in the price of lithium being public, he said the government, at the time, took advantage of the high lithium prices of $3,000 to move beyond the normal royalty of five per cent and moved it to 10 per cent with other provisions.

Based on the company’s requests, he said, three key areas had been looked at.

He named them as royalty rate adjustment, VAT (value added tax) deferral on capital inputs, and transshipment facility feasibility.

“These three areas were new areas that have been factored, and that called for us to look at the new lease which has been negotiated and sent to Cabinet for approval,” the minister said.

Mr Buah said the agreement had been brought for ratification in accordance with Article 268 of the Constitution.

Reacting, the former Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, said he was invited during the Eighth Parliament to give a similar explanatory statement for the laying of the agreement for the exploitation of lithium resources between the same two parties.

He said the House, however, rejected the agreement when it was put before it.

“We could not lay it, and it was not referred to a committee,” he said, describing the explanatory statement by the current Minister of Lands and Natural Resources as nothing different from what he presented in the last Parliament.

The former minister, therefore, prayed the Speaker to overrule and reject the new agreement.

Agreement never rejected

Mr Bagbin, however, said it was important for the House to take a critical look at the lease agreement.

He pointed out that the agreement was never rejected, but “we are trying to put a process for Parliament to critically examine it and make sure that the right thing is done”.