Engineers & Planners, the mining company founded by Ibrahim Mahama, is fighting efforts to enforce an international arbitration award over ownership and control of the Black Volta and Sankofa gold concessions in Ghana's Upper West Region, a dispute now centred on a $100 million deal the two sides describe very differently.

The matter is before the International Chamber of Commerce in London, with a final ruling expected in September 2026.

Court documents from the High Court of Justice in England and Wales, dated 8 June 2026 indicate the court granted permission for an interim award issued by the ICC tribunal in October 2025 to be enforced as if it were an English court judgment. The order states that E&P had "failed to comply with the Interim Award." E&P was also ordered to pay legal costs of £33,309.86.

The company has instructed its lawyers to contest the enforcement order.

The dispute stems from a proposed acquisition of the Black Volta project in 2023. E&P maintains that it acquired the right to buy the project for $100 million following discussions with shareholders of Azumah Resources, the company that holds the concessions.

Azumah's investors dispute that. They argue the proposed transaction did not satisfy agreed conditions, was never properly authorised, and therefore did not result in a valid transfer of ownership. E&P, for its part, has rejected any suggestion that it is unlawfully occupying or operating the concessions.

The arbitration involves investors led by the private equity firm Ibaera Capital, whose representatives maintain that the tribunal's interim orders require E&P to give up control of the disputed assets until the case is finally determined. Last July, E&P announced it had secured a $120 million facility from a regional development bank to support the acquisition.

The tribunal's final award, expected in September, could settle who owns and controls the Black Volta and Sankofa concessions.

The dispute comes as Ghana pushes through some of the deepest changes to its mining sector in a generation. Earlier this year the government took control of the Damang Mine after the operating lease held by Gold Fields expired, and awarded it to E&P through a competitive tender. The award drew opposition claims of favouritism, which the government has rejected. Government spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu said President John Dramani Mahama, whose brother founded E&P, stepped aside from the Cabinet deliberations on the lease to avoid any conflict of interest. “At the Cabinet meeting that considered that particular matter of the Damang mining lease, the President recused himself. He did not sit in that meeting,” he said, adding that the Vice President chaired the session in his absence.

Two of the country's biggest mines face the same test next. Gold Fields is awaiting a decision on renewing the leases covering its Tarkwa Mine, one of West Africa's largest open-pit operations, while AngloGold Ashanti is preparing to renew the lease for its Iduapriem Mine, which sits alongside Tarkwa and was once slated to merge with it into what would have been Africa's largest gold operation. Both leases expire in 2027. The Minerals Commission has signalled that renewals will no longer be routine and will turn on how much economic value a company creates for Ghana. "It won't be business as usual where we just automatically renew the lease," its chief executive, Isaac Andrews Tandoh, told the media.

The government is also pulling gold and money onshore. Since 1 July, large-scale producers have been required to sell 30% of their output to the Ghana Gold Board inside the country, in raw doré form, paid in cedis rather than dollars, for local refining and to build state reserves. The royalty regime has been rewritten too: the flat 5% gold royalty has given way to a sliding scale that climbs with the gold price to as high as 12%, while the growth and sustainability levy on miners was cut from 3% to 1% to soften the blow.

The Ghana Chamber of Mines, which represents the majors, has welcomed parts of the reform but continues to press the government over the overall tax burden on the sector.

The outcome of the ICC arbitration is expected to bring greater legal clarity over ownership of the Black Volta project, even as the wider reforms continue to reshape Ghana's mining industry.