The Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission, Martin Kwaku Ayisi, has shed light on the details of the Lithium deal between the government of the Republic of Ghana and Barari DV Ghana Limited.

The agreement will lease a certain piece of land at Ewoyaa, in the Mfantsiman Municipality in the Central region, and grant rights to mine Lithium and ‘other associated minerals', for a term of 15 years from the date of the agreement.

Although Mr Ayisi says that when it commences in 2025, it will generate a lot of revenue for the country.

Key stakeholders, including the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and the former Chief Justice, Sophia Akufo have described the contract as a colonial and Guggisberg-type deal, respectively.

In an interview, on JoyNews’ Newsfile, Mr Ayisi insists that was not the case, adding, “I am still convinced they have not read the agreement properly. I believe they are oblivious of a whole lot of things.”

• Read also: Lithium mining: Agreement is archaic, less likely to benefit Ghanaians – Sophia Akuffo

He explained that although the deal was signed on October 19, 2019, the project had not commenced because some regulations needed to be followed, one of which was that the agreement would have to be taken to parliament for ratification.

Again, the CEO said the firm was currently securing a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

After obtaining that permit, the firm would return to the Minerals Commission for operating and perhaps a construction permit. Only then can they proceed to the ground. Stressing that the general impression created that mining has already begun was false.

Read also: Lithium contract is not best; Parliament should exercise caution to secure a modern agreement – IEA to government

Touching on the concern by the IEA that the deal was colonial he said “They are horribly wrong. In the first place, they say that the agreement we have made is not fundamentally different from the one we have now. They are fundamentally different in several respects. Ownership, the fiscal regime, value addition and all that. I don’t think they looked all these things.

The first thing, they talked about 1600 tons of lithium, I am referring to the report that they put there. That figure is wrong. The company is going to produce 3500 tons of lithium for the next years not one 160 so they got it all wrong."

• Read also: Ghana to have its first Lithium project with increased royalties, state participation and value addition

Mr Ayisi continued “If we are going to get $294 billion then our problem in Ghana will be over. Let me tell you why they got that wrong too. the price of lithium today as we speak- what we call the concentrate, in other words, when you take the raw lithium and you do a little bit of processing, it is $1,789 for the concentrate. When you set up a refinery or a chemical plant and you refine the concentrate, that is, if you add value, the price on the world market as of 30th November is $18,353. The mistake they made was to multiply 1600 tons with a figure from 5.3. I don’t know who they got their figure. It takes anything, on the average between 8 to 10 tons of the concentrate to produce tons of the carbonate.”

Also, the Mineral Commission CEO clarified that “the proper calculation they should have done was take the 3500 tons and multiply it by 1789 that gives you about $626 million that is a year, they used 160 so they have even undervalued what is going to be produced.

“Granted we even used 10 tons- you know I said it takes about 8 to 10 tons of a concentrate to produce a carbonate. 3500 tons of lithium a year, the concentrate will give you 50,000. So you have to multiply 50,000 (If I want to go their root) by the Friday price, which is $18353. That gives about $917 million so let's assume even for want of any suffocated calculation let’s say a billion dollars.

" So if we want to use Friday price, assuming the company is producing today, we are barely talking about $10 billion. So I don’t know how they arrived at $296 billion. So I don’t know how they multiplied 1600 tons by 5.3, I don’t know what is 5.3, so they got is all wrong, and that is horrible. It is a serious matter they need to come and tell the public how they got their figures.”