Lithium in Ghana can help in the war against climate change.

Lithium in Ghana can help in the war against climate change.

Policy think tank, STRANEK-Africa, has Noted that Mining is a chief contributor to Ghana’s economy apart from it being a major economic activity in the country and many Ghanaian mining production was owned by the state which led to lack of investment and recapitalisation in early 1983.

According to STRANEK-Africa lack of investment and recapitalisation brought the migration of persons with the requisite technical knowhow to other jurisdictions. The mining industry of Ghana contributed 5% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product and the minerals account for 37% of the total export. Apart from Gold which is the most commercially abused mineral in Ghana, inter alia, manganese, bauxite, diamonds are some of the minerals which are mined in Ghana.

In a statement jointly signed by the Executive Director and Director of Research, Nii Tettey Tetteh Esq and Eyram Norglo of STRANEK-Africa respectively has discovered that there are minerals which for a long time, have been extracted to battle climate change such as graphite, lithium, cobalt et cetera are some of the minerals which are used to produce low-carbon technologies like electric vehicles, energy storage facilities among others. Most of these minerals are produced in
developing countries.

Ghana discovered a new mineral, lithium in 2018 through the Ghana Minerals Commission. This discovery was in the Volta, Western and Ashanti Region and according to the Ghana Minerals Commission, the discovery was during a nationwide exploration.

“Indeed, if lithium is produced in commercial quantities in Ghana, it will contribute immensely to supplying materials which can be used to fight climate change”. Ghana can play an important role in the electric car manufacturing business which is part of the low-carbon technologies.

It is therefore the position of STRANEK-Africa that there ought to be transparency and accountability so far as mining particularly lithium is concerned in the war against climate change. This can be achieved by depersonalising the process by which the application to
mine is concerned.

Satellites must be set up by the appropriate mining authorities to watch keenly the sites identified to have greater potential in terms of lithium. The intention behind these monitoring should be about discovering the mineral in commercial quantities, the Director of Research, Eyram Norglo stated.

They therefore call on authorities to regulate unregulated small-scale miners to prevent encroaching the mineral, lithium so that Ghana will be able to benefit immensely from this rich mineral which is essential in the fight against climate change.