Kofi Bentil Accuses Government of Calculated Effort to Strip Adamus Resources Owner of Mining Assets
Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has accused the government of making a “calculated effort” to strip the Ghanaian owner of Adamus Resources Limited of her mining assets, citing the speed with which the company’s mining leases were revoked.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, upheld an earlier decision to revoke Adamus Resources’ mining leases over allegations of illegal mining and other regulatory breaches.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources defended the decision in a statement issued on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, saying the Minerals Commission had established that Adamus conducted mining activities outside its designated and permitted areas without obtaining the required Operating Permit from the Chief Inspector of Mines.
“This constitutes a breach of the applicable mining regulations, including Regulation 200(1)(b) of the Minerals and Mining (Health, Safety and Technical) Regulations,” the ministry said.
However, Mr Bentil, in an interview on Eyewitness News on Wednesday, August 12, questioned the process through which the leases were revoked, arguing that the recommendation, approval and revocation were completed within a matter of days.
“On the 21st of April, a letter was written recommending revocation of the mine. 21st of April. Within two days, on the 23rd of April, another letter was written accepting the recommendation to, you know, do the revocation,” he said.
He said another letter was issued on April 24 accepting the revocation, describing the process as unusually swift for a mine that had operated for more than a decade and was worth millions of dollars.
“How do you go through this whole process with such haste?” Mr Bentil asked.
He said the speed of the process, coupled with the subsequent presence of Chinese nationals at the Adamus concession, raised concerns about the government’s handling of the company’s assets.
“You can tell that this is a calculated effort to strip this woman of her assets,” he said.
Mr Bentil said the concerns were particularly significant because Adamus had been operated by a Ghanaian who had been in the mining industry for more than 20 years.
He argued that if a Ghanaian-owned mining operation had breached its lease conditions, the government should have allowed the operator to address the alleged breaches instead of moving swiftly to revoke the leases.
“I am aware, based on the documentation I have seen, that Act 703 Section 68 was breached,” he said.
According to Mr Bentil, the law requires authorities to notify a mining operator of an alleged infraction, allow the operator to explain the circumstances and, where necessary, give the company time to rectify the breach.
“You do not go ahead and revoke,” he said, adding that “none of these were done.”
He said the government’s approach was inconsistent with its stated position of encouraging Ghanaians to take greater control of the country’s mining industry.
Mr Bentil said the state should apply the same standards to Ghanaian operators as it does to foreign investors while ensuring that local businesses are given a fair opportunity to correct regulatory problems.
“We should make sure that if our generation came to meet a situation where no Ghanaian was in charge of any major industry, we should do differently,” he said.
