Minerals Commission to cap mining leases at 15 years as law review begins

August 25, 2025

The Minerals Commission has moved to limit the maximum duration of mining leases in Ghana to 15 years, Chief Executive Martin Ayisi said, as part of a broader review of the country’s mining policy and legislation.

Speaking at a roundtable organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs in Accra, Mr Ayisi said work is underway to amend the Minerals and Mining Act and related policy documents to remove the existing 30-year lease ceiling. “This does not mean all mining companies will get 15 years. The 30-year mining lease regime in the country is not helping us at all, and we cannot continue to keep it in our laws,” he told the forum.

Mr Ayisi said the change responds to international practice and comparative regional norms. He noted that several African jurisdictions — including Kenya, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali — typically issue leases in the 15–25 year range, and said Ghana’s framework should reflect modern practice.

The commission chief outlined a package of proposed reforms that officials say aim to update a legal framework that has not seen a comprehensive review in nearly two decades. Key proposals he identified include:

Capping mining leases at 15 years, with the detail of individual terms to be set under the new law and policy.
Limiting prospecting licences to an initial three-year term, renewable at most twice, so that a company could hold a prospecting licence for no more than nine years in total. “Each renewal may be granted for any period of not more than three years,” Mr Ayisi said.
Abolishing development agreements between mining companies and the state and removing open-ended stability clauses in mining contracts.
Requiring Community Development Agreements (CDAs): holders of mining leases would be obliged to sign a CDA with affected communities within six months of a lease being granted.

On stability clauses, Mr Ayisi said the commission proposes reducing the maximum stability period — currently up to 15 years in some arrangements — to a duration not exceeding five years, reasoning that five years aligns more closely with typical capital-recovery periods for financed projects. “The whole idea of stability has to do with risks, in particular project finance,” he said, adding that project financiers normally require assurances during the loan payback period.

Mr Ayisi told the meeting that the commission reached the policy position after consultations with a wide range of stakeholders, naming 15 Regional Houses of Chiefs, the Ghana Chamber of Mines, the Forestry Commission, civil society organisations and other experts. He said the stakeholder engagements would be completed by the end of August, with the review report submitted to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources in September. “We hope that by October this year, a new mining policy will be announced,” he said, adding that legal amendments would follow the ministerial submission, Cabinet approval and parliamentary consideration, with the aim of concluding both policy and law updates by year-end.

The roundtable included former Chief Justice and Council of State member Sophia Akuffo, former Minerals Commission CEO Benjamin Aryee, Advisor to the Lands and Natural Resources Minister Professor Jerry S. Y. Kuma, IEA Senior Fellow Dr Eric Oduro Osae, and other sector figures.

Background materials cited at the forum note that Ghana’s modern mining history dates back to 1897. The sector currently hosts 13 large-scale mines, and the state holds an automatic 10% carried interest in those operations. The Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), is approaching twenty years without a major overhaul, and the national Minerals and Mining Policy, introduced in 2014, has not been revised though revisions are expected every five years.

Mr Ayisi said the proposed changes also seek to address practices that the commission views as open to misuse under the current law, and to formalise community obligations that are now mostly voluntary. On voluntary community spending and tax treatment, he said a legal provision would clarify how community investments are treated for tax purposes. “This provision seeks to formalise it to put Ghana at par with other countries,” he said.

The commission said further details of the draft policy and legislative amendments will be made public as the stakeholder consultations conclude and the review proceeds through the ministerial and parliamentary processes.