GHANA has restricted the tender to find a new operator for the Damang gold mine — which Gold Fields is set to hand over to the government on April 18 — exclusively to companies that are fully owned by Ghanaian citizens, said Bloomberg News.
The government declined to renew Gold Fields’ lease on the operation last year before granting a 12-month extension on condition that the South African miner facilitate a transfer of the asset to Ghanaian ownership. Offers for the tender closed on Tuesday, the newswire said.
The restriction reflects Accra’s broader drive to expand local ownership of an industry currently dominated by multinationals including AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont and China’s Zijin Mining Group. African governments from Mali to Zimbabwe have been pushing for greater control over revenues from their natural resources.
Damang, which began production nearly three decades ago, produced 88,000 ounces of gold last year, roughly a third of its output at peak. Prospective buyers must demonstrate open-pit mining experience, a capacity to operate the mine for at least ten years, and access to more than $500m in development funding, said Bloomberg News.
The last comparable transaction in Ghana was Zijin’s $1bn acquisition of Newmont’s Akyem mine, agreed in October 2024. Gold Fields is separately negotiating a lease renewal for its larger Tarkwa operation.
