Ghana's parliament ratifies Atlantic Lithium's Ewoyaa mining lease

Ghana's Parliament ratified the mining lease for Atlantic Lithium's Ewoyaa spodumene project on 20 March 2026, formally granting the AIM-listed developer exclusive mining rights over the Central Region deposit for an initial 15-year term, renewable under Ghanaian law. The vote follows more than a year of renegotiation between the company and the government over fiscal terms, and marks the country's first ratified lithium mining lease.

A new royalty formula

The ratified lease applies a sliding royalty scale to spodumene concentrate sales rather than the flat 10% rate Ghana had originally sought. Under the new formula, set out in the country's Minerals and Mining (Royalty) Regulations 2025, the rate falls to 5% when prices are below $1,500 a tonne and rises to 12% once prices exceed $3,200 a tonne, tying government revenue more closely to the cycle lithium producers have experienced since 2023. Atlantic Lithium chief executive Keith Muller described the ratification as a watershed moment for both Ghana and the company, framing it as the foundation of the country's new lithium future.

Ewoyaa is a joint venture between Atlantic Lithium and US-based Piedmont Lithium, which holds a 50% earn-in interest and has offtake rights over half the project's planned output through Elevra Lithium, the entity formed by Piedmont's merger with Sayona Mining. Piedmont's offtake commitments had previously included supply agreements linked to Tesla and LG Chem.

Why it matters

Ghana is Africa's largest gold producer but has no history of lithium mining, and Ewoyaa has been positioned by successive governments as the flagship project for diversifying the country's mining revenue base into battery metals. The project's fortunes have also become entangled with corporate manoeuvring: Atlantic Lithium is separately weighing a takeover approach from China's Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, and the ratified lease removes one of the biggest pieces of regulatory uncertainty hanging over that process.

What happens next

With the lease ratified, Atlantic Lithium says its focus shifts to updating the market on the outcomes of 2025 project work before advancing toward a final investment decision. The company has also been securing near-term funding, including a strategic investment from Ghanaian pension funds and a placement with Long State Investments, to keep the project moving while financing for full construction is arranged.

Sources

• Mining Weekly: Ghana's Parliament ratifies Atlantic Lithium's Ewoyaa mining lease, 20 Mar 2026
• MINING.COM: Atlantic Lithium wins key Ghana approval for Ewoyaa mine, 20 Mar 2026

Photo: Spodumene, the lithium-bearing mineral targeted at the Ewoyaa project. Shannon Heinle, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.