After eight years of exploration and negotiations, West Africa’s first lithium mine has been delayed, pending approval from Ghana’s parliament. But farming communities say mining activities have already upended their lives.
‘The mine has not yet opened but we have been hurt already,’ said Abraham Essex, a student and farmer from Krampakrom, in Ghana’s central Cape Coast region. Since 2018, around 700 people from 12 villages have been impacted by exploration and construction from the Australian-backed Ewoyaa Lithium Project. Compensation payments set by Atlantic Lithium, the firm leading the project, were issued haphazardly and significantly below the value of the lost crops, according to civil society organizations.
