Fisheries groups ask Mahama to review offshore gold exploration off Ghana's western coast

Pinned summary · as of 15:29

A coalition of civil society organisations working with fishers and coastal communities has written to President John Dramani Mahama, asking him to urgently review gold exploration under way off the western coast. The open letter, dated 28 September 2026, concerns reconnaissance licences that GoldCoast Resource Corp. says it holds. The groups want the review completed before the programme reaches stages that disturb the seabed.

What we know

• In an open letter dated 28 September 2026, the coalition asked President Mahama to take a fresh look at the search for offshore gold off the country's western shoreline. It said it accepts responsible investment, but wants fish stocks, wildlife, food supplies, human rights and the incomes of coastal residents protected before the work turns more invasive.
• Oxfam, the Environmental Justice Foundation, Hen Mpoano, OCEANA and Friends of the Nation are among those who signed. So are A Rocha Ghana, CEWEFIA, CERATH Development Organisation, Development Action Association, Global Fisheries and Resilience Action, and CEMLAWS Africa, a maritime law and security centre.
• GoldCoast Resource Corp. reports ten offshore reconnaissance licences covering roughly 10,000 square kilometres. The area runs along about 300 kilometres of shoreline between Half Assini and Winneba and extends around 33 kilometres out to sea.
• Ghana's Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2025 (Act 1146) sets the Inshore Exclusion Zone at the waters within 12 nautical miles, about 22 kilometres, of the shore. According to the coalition, a map published by the company hints that sizeable stretches of the licensed acreage sit inside that band, but the exact overlap cannot be established until official coordinates and licence documents are made public.
• Company disclosures, as relayed in the reports, put airborne magnetic data gathered so far at about 50,000 line-kilometres across the licensed area. More detailed work has been concentrated on a 500-square-kilometre patch near where the Ankobra River meets the sea.
• The planned next steps are marine bathymetric and seismic surveys, after which the company intends to move on to sediment coring and large-volume seabed sampling. The coalition noted that the company has not established any mineral resource or reserve, or shown that a mine would pay.
• The coalition invoked Section 32(3) of the 2006 minerals law, Act 703 as amended, under which a reconnaissance licence holder may not drill or excavate. In its view, seabed coring and bulk sampling that involve excavating or dredging cannot be classed as reconnaissance.
• It also referred to section 99(6) of that Act. According to the coalition, this creates an offence for anyone who operates a floating platform or similar equipment to extract or dredge minerals in the territorial sea, the exclusive economic zone or the continental shelf, or in other natural water bodies in Ghana.
• To show what is at stake, the letter cited three sources. The 2022-2026 marine fisheries management plan estimates that the sector employs about 10% of Ghana's population, or more than three million people. A 2022 canoe frame survey found 110,351 artisanal marine fishers working from 12,181 canoes. The Fisheries Commission's 2025 report logged 282,658.29 metric tonnes of fish landed by artisanal boats, equal to 63.68% of the total.
• The coalition warned that seismic surveys, heavier vessel traffic, disturbed seabed and drifting sediment could harm spawning and nursery areas, bottom-dwelling habitats and marine mammals. It referred to offshore mining in Norton Sound, Alaska and in Bangka-Belitung, Indonesia.
• The coalition asked the government to release the official coordinates for all ten licences, together with their instruments, conditions and approved work programmes. It also wants an independent mapping exercise showing how the licences sit against the Inshore Exclusion Zone, important fishing grounds and vulnerable habitats, as well as the marine protected area at Cape Three Points.
• It further asked the government to spell out which legal and environmental approvals apply to each later phase, and to issue no prospecting licence and allow no invasive seabed work until thorough environmental, fisheries, social, economic and human-rights assessments are done. It wants an open decision on whether the current licences continue, are altered or are cancelled.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Ghana News Online reported the coalition as alleging that the company's plans pose a grave preliminary legal problem and could be unlawful. This is the coalition's argument only; nothing in the reports shows a ruling or an official position on whether the planned work would be lawful.
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  Onua Online reported that the letter asks how seabed coring, bulk sampling, dredging or later extraction could go ahead lawfully given section 99(6), and that the coalition wants an answer before further investment, approvals or damage to the marine environment. It also cited several constitutional articles and international human-rights instruments. Ghana News Online did not carry these points.
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  Onua Online reported that the petition was copied to the Vice President, the Chief of Staff and the Council of State, as well as the Speaker, several ministers and the Environmental Protection Agency. Other recipients it listed include CHRAJ, Regional Ministers, the House of Chiefs, religious bodies and the commissions for minerals and for fisheries. This has not been confirmed elsewhere.
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  Ghana News Online reported the coalition as flagging the marine protected area around Cape Three Points, which it gave as 703.86 square kilometres. It said the coalition also called for site-specific baseline studies and independent monitoring, and asked that the Fisheries Commission, coastal communities and academia join the review. It added that the coalition stressed that the harms seen in Alaska and Indonesia would not automatically recur in Ghana. Onua Online did not carry these points.

Why it matters for Ghana

Fishing supports a very large number of households along Ghana's coast, and the figures the coalition cites show how many depend on canoe fishing for income and food. The dispute turns on whether licensed waters overlap the Inshore Exclusion Zone defined in law, a question that cannot be settled without the licence coordinates the groups want published. How the government responds will also shape how offshore mineral exploration is regulated in waters used by coastal communities from Half Assini to Winneba.