West Africa is now attracting attention for battery minerals mining with a renewed interest likely to draw in explorers and miners of various sizes and capabilities, says consulting engineers and scientists SRK Consulting Ghana country manager and principal resource geologist Ivan Doku.
He adds that Ghana, which is well known for its gold resources, is aiming to be the first country in the region to become a lithium producer, with progress on projects in the Cape Coast area.
“As the mining sector in Ghana is now quite mature, many of the large gold exploration targets have been well mined and exhausted,” he says.
This will create considerable scope for junior players who are geared towards exploring and exploiting smaller footprints, as the days of easy gold exploration targets with large footprints in Ghana have ended.
He notes that junior companies often lack the expertise and resources to conduct their own exploration programmes, creating an opportunity for companies like SRK to collaborate with them.
“As with all mineral projects that need to go to the market for finance raising, these entities need thorough technical studies that will generate accurate and reliable data on resources and reserves,” he says.
Additionally, SRK is currently involved in some aspects of the lithium-related studies underway in Ghana’s Central region, where there is ongoing reconnaissance and exploration work including some studies at prefeasibility phase.
“We have also noted an increase in the request for exploration licences for lithium adjacent to this prefeasibility target.”
Doku says SRK’s direct local presence through its Accra office, over the past 11 years has positioned it well to consolidate its footprint in West Africa.
The SRK team and its network of local specialist associates have had ready access to many countries in the region.
This has proved particularly valuable since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which disrupted broader international travel.
“The ease of movement between regional political and economic union
Economic Community of West African States by our local experts facilitates our access to clients in various countries,” he adds.
“Beyond Ghana, we have worked all over the region – with the most recent engagements in Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Togo.”
Study Increase
Doku points out that the demand for technical studies, audits, and other work that SRK offers has risen, owing to buoyant commodity prices – with work focused on both brownfield expansions and greenfield exploration.
Locally based scientists and engineering practitioners are supporting other SRK global practices where colleagues from those offices cannot easily travel.
This has increased and broadened the role played by the Ghana office – which continues to grow its capacity.
He adds that the improved economic climate has also opened doors for mining companies wanting to re-evaluate historical mining data and sites for certain projects.
“Investor appetite in the West African region is tempered by volatile political and security conditions in some countries,” says Doku.
However, he stresses that risk management is a strong feature of the mining sector, allowing most risks to be effectively mitigated.
“While instability certainly does not encourage future investors, those existing mining operations have shown that they can endure times of turmoil,” he concludes
.