Ghana Gold Dispute: President’s Brother Defies Courts
GHANA · MINING
Key Facts
—The row: Engineers & Planners, founded and run by Ibrahim Mahama, brother of Ghana’s president, has refused to hand back the $100 million Black Volta gold mine, according to documents reported by Semafor.
—The rulings: The ICC’s arbitration court ordered E&P in October 2025 to stop occupying the Black Volta and Sankofa sites; in June the English High Court found it had failed to comply.
—The claims: Azumah Resources’ investors allege site seizure and forged signatures on a share transfer; E&P denies all allegations and says it is not occupying the mine.
—The money: E&P says shareholders offered it the project for $100 million in 2023; it secured a $120 million ECOWAS development-bank loan in July 2025 toward the purchase.
—The backdrop: Ghana, Africa’s top gold producer, is rewriting mining rules amid record prices – and separate arbitrations by Cassius Mining and Blue Gold are already testing investor nerves.
—What is next: Both sides expect the ICC’s final judgment at a hearing in September.
A Ghana gold dispute over the $100 million Black Volta mine has drawn in Engineers & Planners, run by the president’s brother Ibrahim Mahama. Investors say the firm has defied an arbitration ruling and an English court order, with a final ICC judgment due in September.
Inside the Ghana gold dispute
The Black Volta project sits on the Wa-Lawra gold belt in Ghana’s Upper West Region. It is one of the country’s most promising undeveloped gold zones.
Azumah Resources, an explorer backed largely by American private equity, acquired prospecting licences there in 2006. Mining concessions followed in 2014.
In arbitration documents reported by Semafor, Engineers & Planners says Azumah’s shareholders offered it the right to buy the project for $100 million in 2023. The firm was founded and run by Ibrahim Mahama, brother of President John Dramani Mahama.
Azumah’s investors deny that account. They say any acquisition rights depended on obligations the Ghanaian firm never fulfilled.
The investors accuse the company of seizing the site and forging signatures to push through a transfer of shares. E&P denies the allegations entirely.
Two courts, one refusal
The International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court, sitting in London, ordered E&P on October 23, 2025 to stop trespassing on or interfering with the Black Volta and Sankofa sites. On June 8 this year, the High Court of England and Wales found the company had failed to comply.
That court then allowed the award to be enforced as an English judgment. Azumah’s investors say both rulings have been ignored.
The underlying contracts were written under English law. That is why a Ghanaian mining row is being fought through London courtrooms.
The defence from E&P
“E&P is neither occupying the Black Volta Mines nor has it taken over the operations of the Mine or its resources,” Bobby Banson, a lawyer for the company, told Semafor. The firm has instructed its lawyers to seek to set aside the English order.
It dismisses the continuing proceedings as public-relations theatre. E&P secured a $120 million loan from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development in July 2025, funds it said were for acquiring the site.
Representatives of both sides expect the ICC to deliver a final judgment at a hearing in September.
A familiar family name
The row lands on an already sensitive nerve. In April, Ghana’s minerals regulator passed over South Africa’s Gold Fields, which had run the Damang mine for more than two decades.
The regulator handed the lease to E&P, while denying accusations of favouritism. A government spokesman said the president recused himself from the Damang decision to avoid any conflict of interest.
Opposition politicians have accused the administration of crony capitalism in its treatment of the president’s brother. The government has repeatedly denied those accusations.
Why investors are watching Ghana
Ghana is Africa’s largest gold producer. It is rewriting its mining rules in the middle of a historic gold price boom.
New rules reserve surface mining for wholly Ghanaian-owned firms and require at least half-local ownership underground. They also link royalties to bullion prices on a sliding scale.
Australian miner Cassius Mining and Nasdaq-listed Blue Gold are separately pursuing arbitration claims against Ghanaian authorities worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which the state denies. Fresh from a $3 billion IMF bailout, the country can ill afford a rising risk premium on its flagship sector, as Semafor’s reporting makes plain.
A Daily Maverick opinion piece last month asked whether Ghana’s gold shake-up is resource nationalism or a fig leaf for state capture. September’s ruling will not settle that argument, but it will show whether court orders bind everyone equally in Africa’s gold heavyweight.
More: Ghana news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Black Volta gold dispute about?
Ownership of a $100 million gold project in northwest Ghana. Azumah Resources’ investors say Engineers & Planners seized the site and forged signatures on a share transfer; E&P denies the allegations and claims a 2023 deal gave it acquisition rights.
Who is Ibrahim Mahama?
A Ghanaian businessman, founder and chief executive of mining contractor Engineers & Planners, and brother of President John Dramani Mahama.
What have the courts ruled so far?
The ICC’s arbitration court ordered E&P in October 2025 to stop occupying the Black Volta and Sankofa sites, and in June 2026 the English High Court found the company had failed to comply. E&P is seeking to set that order aside.
What happens next in the Ghana gold dispute?
Both sides expect the International Chamber of Commerce to deliver a final judgment at a hearing in September 2026.
Connected Coverage
Ghana’s resource reset runs through our reporting on the rule forcing miners to sell 30 percent of gold to the central bank and on how the gold boom lifts growth while squeezing cocoa. The wider contest for African resources is mapped in our pillar, Africa: The New Scramble.
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