WAMPEX 2026: Renewed clarity for Ghana’s mining’s  future

By Justina NELSON

WAMPEX 2026, held from June 2 to 4 in Accra, offered more than another industry gathering. It provided a timely assessment of opportunities and challenges shaping the future of mining in Ghana and across West Africa.

While discussions touched on familiar themes such as production, commodity prices and investment trends, a deeper message emerged. The long-term competitiveness of Ghana’s mining sector will depend less on what is being mined today and more on the projects being prepared for tomorrow.

Across multiple sessions, industry leaders, investors and policymakers highlighted a common concern. Questions around project preparation, access to finance, policy predictability, energy reliability, technology adoption, ESG performance and institutional coordination repeatedly surfaced throughout the conference. Together, they point to a broader challenge: how can Ghana position itself to attract the capital needed to sustain mining growth over the coming decades?

The answer increasingly leads back to one critical area that received significant attention at WAMPEX: exploration.

Exploration is not simply a technical mining activity; it is the foundation upon which future mineral wealth is built. Every producing mine, royalty stream and mining-related investment begins with the discovery and development of economically viable resources. For Ghana, the implications extend beyond the mining sector itself.

Future exploration success will influence government revenues, foreign direct investment, employment opportunities and the long-term sustainability for institutions such as the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), whose mandate is linked to maximizing value from the country’s mineral resources. Ensuring a healthy pipeline of exploration projects today is therefore essential to securing the mineral income and investment opportunities of tomorrow.

Stronger Transition into Exploration

The record attendance at WAMPEX demonstrates that investor interest in Ghana and the wider West African mining sector remains strong. Yet interest alone does not automatically translate into investment.

Many projects remain insufficiently de-risked, inadequately structured or technically underdeveloped to attract capital at scale. The need to strengthen the pipeline of future mining projects through renewed exploration is becoming increasingly urgent and the time is now.

Exploration may not have been the sole focus of the conference, but it emerged as the thread connecting future mineral discoveries, investor confidence, long-term royalty revenues and the overall sustainability of Ghana’s mining economy.

This matters because exploration represents the front end of the mining value chain. Without new discoveries, producing assets are eventually depleted, reserve lives shorten and the mineral income that supports jobs, communities and public revenues inevitably comes under pressure.

The discussions at WAMPEX provided a useful reminder that while Ghana’s mineral potential remains significant, turning that potential into future economic value will require deliberate action today.

Why exploration now deserves greater attention

Exploration is at the heart of the mining industry. Without exploration, there are no new discoveries. Without discoveries, production declines over time. And when production falls, mineral royalties, one of the state’s most important sources of mining income, will ultimately weaken.

This is why exploration deserves greater prominence in national mining policy discussions. Ghana has taken some encouraging steps, including the removal of VAT on exploration under the RESET Agenda. That intervention is important, however, much more is needed to be done to attract capital into high-risk, early-stage exploration.

Unlike active mining, exploration is uncertain, capital-intensive and long-dated. It depends heavily on patient funding, confidence in the regulatory environment and a credible pathway from licence acquisition to project development. These conditions are difficult everywhere, but the challenge is particularly acute in jurisdictions where investors are concerned about policy changes, permitting delays or land access constraints.

A global downturn and policy response

Recent industry reporting shows that global exploration budgets have fallen for two consecutive years, with spending dropping again in 2025 as junior companies struggled to access finance and grassroots exploration reached a record low share of total budgets. This matters because early-stage exploration is where the next generation of mineral discoveries begin.

Some mining jurisdictions have responded with deliberate policy tools to keep exploration capital flowing. Canada is one of the most frequently cited examples.

Through its flow-through share regime, supported by the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit, Canada has created a mechanism that helps junior exploration companies raise risk capital by passing qualifying exploration deductions and credits through to investors. The effect is to reduce investor risk and make early-stage exploration more financeable.

Australia has pursued a related approach through its Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive, which allows eligible exploration companies to convert a portion of their tax losses into credits that can be distributed to investors in newly issued shares. The objective is similar: encourage funding for greenfield exploration where commercial risk is highest.

The lesson for Ghana is not to replicate foreign models’ wholesale. Rather, it is to recognise that leading mining jurisdictions actively compete for exploration capital. They do so through predictable regulation, targeted fiscal incentives and institutional systems that reduce risk for investors.

In an increasingly competitive global environment, countries that create favourable conditions for exploration are more likely to secure discoveries that underpin future mining revenues. Those that do not risk seeing investment flow elsewhere.

At a time when global exploration spending is under pressure, passive reliance on market forces alone is unlikely to be sufficient.

MIIF’s Role in Shaping the Next Generation of Mining Investment

The Minerals Income Investment Fund has an opportunity to shape the response in a practical and catalytic way. If the central challenge is that Ghana needs more investment-ready exploration and development opportunities, then MIIF’s role is not only to invest, but also to help unlock the conditions that make investment possible.

Our priority is to support the front end of the pipeline. This could include targeted vehicles or partnerships that help finance feasibility work, technical validation and other de-risking activities that move promising assets closer to bankability.

MIIF would continue to use its position to advocate for greater policy stability, stronger licence administration and improved coordination across institutions that shape mining investments. Competitiveness depends as much on institutional clarity and project preparation as it does on mineral endowment.

Further, the Fund can help frame exploration not as a narrow industry issue, but as a long-term national development priority.

Finally, MIIF can contribute by championing responsible, modern and investment-ready mining systems; systems that align financing, governance, infrastructure, ESG expectations and technical capacity.

A constructive path forward

As WAMPEX 2026 drew to a close, one message became increasingly clear: Ghana’s mining future will not be determined solely by the strength of its mineral endowment, but by the quality of decisions made today.

Exploration financing, policy stability, licensing efficiency, infrastructure development and responsible environmental stewardship are no longer separate policy discussions. Together, they form the foundation upon which future mining growth will be built.

For Ghana, the opportunity remains significant. The country continues to benefit from strong geological potential, established mining expertise and sustained investor interest. The challenge now is to convert those advantages into a pipeline of investment-ready projects capable of supporting production, creating jobs and generating national revenues for decades to come.

At MIIF, this represents an important strategic moment. Beyond investing in existing assets, there is an opportunity to help shape the conditions that unlock future value across the mining ecosystem.

The evolving global mining landscape presents both opportunities and challenges for resource-rich countries. Ghana’s mineral endowment, industry experience and institutional foundations provide a solid basis for continued growth, while ongoing collaboration among stakeholders will remain important in supporting the sector’s long-term development.

If that balance can be achieved, the rewards could extend far beyond mining itself, creating stronger revenues, resilient communities, responsible resource development and a more prosperous national economy.

This writer is the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Income Investment Fund

Post Views: 1