Cassius Mining (ASX: CMD) has taken the Ghanaian government to court for “breach of contracts” that resulted in the company losing its gold project. In its claim, Cassius is seeking $277 million (A$443 million) in damages from the African nation.
In a press release dated Dec. 23, the Australian miner said the claim, witness statements and independent expert reports have all been filed at the International Tribunal in London. The claim amount, it added, represents the “lost profits and damages for the loss of opportunity to develop, establish and benefit from a producing gold mine in its licensed area.”
The company’s Gbane project in northeastern Ghana comprises a large-scale prospecting licence covering a total area of 13.8 km2. It is situated within the Talensi district of the Upper East region, next to the currently producing Shaanxi gold mine.
Cassius also had a long-running dispute with Shaanxi, alleging that the Chinese mining company operating the mine had dug hundreds of metres underground into its concession and plundered tens of millions of dollars in gold from its veins, according to investigations by the Sydney Morning Herald and a local journalist.
Shaanxi had also been accused of taking extreme measures to keep small-scale miners off their mine site in northern Ghana, including the release of toxic gas that once killed 16 people. Since 2013, it is alleged that more than 60 miners have been killed in Shaanxi’s mines.
Despite these allegations, which Shaanxi denied, Ghana elected to turn a blind eye. Instead, it shut down Cassius’ nearby project in 2019 for what it calls “constitutional non-compliance” because it was not properly ratified under the new Ghanaian law.
“Ghana’s actions, including its failure to renew Cassius’s prospecting licence, has resulted in Cassius being deprived of the entire value and profits of its gold project in Ghana,” Cassius stated in its press release.
To support its claim, the company relied on leading quantum experts AMC Consultants in Perth, Western Australia, and Secretariat in Washington DC.
The claim is being prosecuted through the legal framework of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2010 (Ghana), which is largely based on the provisions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Rules (UNCITRAL).
