Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), Dr Steve Manteaw, has described the Lithium Mining Agreement between Ghana Government and the Barrari DV of Australia as the best contract in the history of Ghana’s natural resources extraction.

According to him, the increase in royalty payments and the country’s equity in the agreement makes it different from all other mining contracts in the country.

He, however, believes this will be a baseline for upcoming agreements.

Reacting to assertions by some civil society groups that Ghana is being short-changed in the deal, Dr. Manteaw expressed confidence that this will help subsequent agreements to be improved.

“My preliminary assessment tells me that this is the best natural resource contract we have signed so far in the history of resource extraction in Ghana. So it sets a certain baseline for negotiating future contracts”.

“Let me say that it happened the same manner as Jubilee [oil field]. If you compare the contract signed with the jubilee partners and other subsequent ones, it tells you that over time we have improved in the various negotiations."

He further said the lithium contract suggests the country will not go back to days when it was signing contracts with little or no benefit.

"It also indicates that this country will not go back to the days we were signing 3.0% and 5.0% royalty payments and 10% carried interest” he noted.

The Lithium Mining Agreement has been criticised by some civil society organisations including the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), saying, it is not in the best interest of the country