Once operational, the project is expected to produce an average of 163,000 ounces of gold per year, about five tonnes annually, during its first five years. This would represent roughly 3% of Ghana’s national gold output, which rose to 4.8 million ounces, or 150 tonnes, in 2024.
However, a NorvanReports exposé revealed that Azumah Resources, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australian firm Ibaera Capital, after stalling on the Black Volta concession for over a decade without development, sought a local partner to revive the site.
Azumah reportedly intended to sell its 100% stake due to declining gold prices.
The report further indicated that Azumah Resources was indebted to the Minerals Commission and owed over $3 million to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) alone, prompting its desire to exit the project.
Additionally, the company was said to have voluntarily approached E&P, offering them the first right to acquire the mine.
E&P however proposed a $100 million payment plan to Azumah over two years, but the partnership stalled due to Azumah’s delay in executing the final agreement.
According to the original plan, the agreement was to have been signed by August 2023 to enable E&P to secure financing.
NorvanReports.com noted that internal emails reviewed showed the fully signed document was not returned to E&P until late November 2023.
In an email dated July 23, 2024, James Wallbank of Ibaera Capital, acting on behalf of the Azumah consortium, wrote, “We have extended the date for the EPC agreement and equity financing to 30th July. We have extended the date for financing to 30th August, and the date for the Payment 1 milestone to 31st December 2024.”
Despite these adjustments, E&P continued to finance the mine’s operations at a cost of approximately $500,000 per month.
E&P also renegotiated the debts owed to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), securing waivers and revised repayment terms that helped prevent the foreclosure of the mine.
The report further stated that documents confirm E&P paid Azumah Resources staff salaries as recently as June 2025, long after Azumah claimed the agreement had been terminated in December 2024.
Azumah’s recent claim that the contract has been terminated is now being contested.
A staff member close to the transaction, according to NorvanReports, said,
“They said if we don’t pay them $300 million, we can forget it. Yet they were taking money from us every month even after their so-called termination.”
Some analysts believe the recent surge in gold prices may have influenced Azumah’s revised valuation of the mine at $300 million.
In view of this, E&P took Azumah to court in June 2025 following reported attempts by Azumah to dissolve the project’s finance committee and sideline E&P from decision-making.
The High Court of Ghana subsequently granted an interim injunction, ruling that the agreement remains binding until the conclusion of arbitration.
“The injunction barred Azumah and its partners from selling the asset, raising new funding, or appointing new leadership without E&P’s consent. The ruling also acknowledged that E&P had invested significantly in the venture and that allowing Azumah to act unilaterally could cause irreparable harm,” the report stated.
Azumah issued a disclaimer on July 4, 2025, stating, “Azumah Resources Ghana Limited wishes to formally distance itself from a document currently circulating in the media, purported to be an invitation to a ‘Facility Agreement Signing Ceremony – E&P Acquisition of the Black Volta Gold Project,’ scheduled to take place on 7th July 2025 at the Marriott Hotel.”
This disclaimer was issued just days before E&P’s scheduled financing agreement signing with EBID, the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development.
However, court records, internal emails, and payment receipts suggest that the partnership remained active well into mid-2025, according to NorvanReports.com.
“E&P claims to have invested over $4 million in maintaining the viability of the operations, while the underlying mining assets could now be worth hundreds of millions at current gold prices. Today’s planned EBID signing ceremony on Monday, July 7, 2025, which is proceeding, would mark a significant milestone in African mining development,” the report concluded.
For now, the high-stakes legal dispute between the two companies over the Black Volta Gold Project has escalated to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), where the arbitration panel is chaired by Funke Adekoya SAN of Nigeria, alongside Shadrack Arhin of Ghana and Edwin Glasgow KC of the UK.
