Engineers and Planners (E&P) Company Limited is positioned to become the first indigenous Ghanaian company to take full operational control of a major large-scale gold mine, as a formal handover deadline approaches for the Damang Mine in the Western Region and documents reveal the company has been actively pursuing acquisition of the asset since 2022.
Gold Fields Limited’s 30-year mining lease for the Damang Mine expired in 2025, and following a one-year government extension to allow transition arrangements, the South African mining company has confirmed it will formally transfer the mine to the Government of Ghana on April 18, 2026. Documents reviewed by the Daily Graphic show that E&P had already begun positioning itself to assume control of the asset well before the handover date, with a trail of letters, proposals and regulatory engagements stretching back several years.
According to documents reviewed by The Herald, E&P first took formal steps to acquire Damang in September 2023, when Gold Fields notified the company, which was then operating as the mine’s primary contractor, to begin demobilising its equipment. Rather than withdrawing, E&P responded with a purchase proposal addressed to the Gold Fields Chief Executive.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources issued a no-objection letter in March 2024, confirming it had no objection to Gold Fields and E&P entering into negotiations over the asset. The Minister, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah, confirmed in December 2025 that the government was aware of the acquisition discussions and accepted a recommendation that E&P be included in the mine’s official transition team.
Gold Fields Senior Vice-President Elliot Twum, in a letter dated November 11, 2025, acknowledged E&P’s extensive operational familiarity with Damang’s geological conditions and workforce dynamics, noting the company could be well positioned to support continued operations depending on the final ownership structure determined for the asset. The letter also warned that delays in confirming a new operator risked disrupting regulatory permit renewals and licences.
By January 2026, however, E&P said it had not received a response to its formal request for a meeting to finalise acquisition modalities. The company sent a further letter on January 26, 2026, addressed to Gold Fields Chief Executive Mike Fraser, noting that its request for discussions remained unanswered with the April handover date approaching.
E&P is owned by Ibrahim Mahama, a businessman and the younger brother of President John Dramani Mahama, who returned to office in January 2025. The company has described the acquisition process as purely commercial, predating the December 2024 election by more than a year. Policy analyst Bright Simons of IMANI Africa published an article in April 2025 raising concerns about political influence and conflicts of interest in the transaction, prompting E&P and Ibrahim Mahama to issue a legal demand for retraction and file a defamation suit at an Accra High Court. The case is ongoing.
E&P secured a US$205 million syndicated loan in February 2026, arranged by Stanbic Bank Ghana and Standard Bank of South Africa, with Ecobank Ghana and Absa Bank Ghana as participating lenders, to expand its mining operations with Gold Fields at both the Tarkwa and Damang sites. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) separately approved a US$120 million facility to fund the company’s already completed acquisition of the Black Volta Gold Project, which it took over from Australian company Azumah Resources in a transaction that began in October 2023.
Over its operational lifetime, the Damang Mine has produced more than four million ounces of gold.
