The Country Director of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Dennis Gyeyir, has called on the government to subject all proposed revisions to the Atlantic Lithium mining agreement to rigorous scrutiny before granting any tax concessions or policy adjustments.He stressed that any renegotiated terms must be backed by solid economic feasibility studies to ensure the country does not forfeit critical revenue from the emerging lithium industry under the pretext of declining global prices.Mr Gyeyir made this call during a two-day media engagement on Ghana's lithium fiscal regime and refinery efforts, which ended yesterday in Koforidua.
The event, organised by NRGI, aimed to build the capacity of journalists to better understand Ghana's role in the global critical minerals space and how value can be extracted sustainably.According to him, the institute is concerned about recent engagements between the government and Atlantic Lithium, which has formally requested a revision of the mining terms agreed upon in 2023.
The company has cited a sharp drop in lithium prices-from over $1,000 to about $700-as justification for revisiting fiscal terms such as royalties and tax exemptions.Mr Gyeyir explained that while some of the company's concerns are valid, any adjustments must be guided by proper modeling and assessment, not rushed negotiations."We've proposed a sliding-scale royalty regime where the government's share adjusts with global market prices.
But community development agreements must remain untouched," he emphasised.He noted that NRGI's analysis also recommends a re-evaluation of carried interest provisions and strengthened tax avoidance safeguards.
