Government has cancelled a $1.2 billion bauxite lease with local firm Rocksure International, seeking a partnership instead with a big overseas company to tap one of West Africa's richest deposits, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Potential partners include Dubai-based Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) or a Chinese firm, two of the sources said.
The termination marks a strategic pivot by Ghana, which holds an estimated 900 million metric tons of bauxite, the seventh largest globally, but has struggled to attract sustained investment in mining and refining infrastructure.
Rocksure's lease covered the Nyinahin Hills in central Ghana, home to about 376 million tons of bauxite, the feedstock for aluminium.
