(Yonhap Interview) Rich in key minerals, Ghana seeks collaboration with S. Korea in critical minerals exploration: president

▲ Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on March 13, 2026. (Yonhap)

▲ Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on March 13, 2026. (Yonhap)

▲ Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama (L) poses with President Lee Jae Myung ahead of their summit talks in Seoul on March 11, 2026. (Yonhap)

(Yonhap Interview) Ghanaian president

(Yonhap Interview) Rich in key minerals, Ghana seeks collaboration with S. Korea in critical minerals exploration: president

By Kim Seung-yeon

SEOUL, March 14 (Yonhap) -- Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama has expressed hope for future cooperation between South Korea and his country in critical minerals exploration, saying such collaboration could be a win-win in the increasingly strategic sector.

Mahama made the remarks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Friday, noting that the issue was among those discussed during his summit talks with President Lee Jae Myung earlier this week, besides other areas like maritime security, climate change and digital cooperation.

"We want to do a geological mapping of the whole of Ghana to see what minerals we have that can be mined," he said. "It was one of the discussions I had with President Lee, that how Ghana could collaborate with Korea to identify critical minerals in Ghana."

Mahama was on a five-day working visit to South Korea, the first African leader to visit Seoul since the launch of the Lee government in June 2025.

Ghana, located on the coast of West Africa, is the largest producer of gold on the continent. It also has proven reserves of manganese and newly discovered lithium -- key components for electric vehicle batteries, a sector in which South Korean companies hold a major share of global production.

Mahama noted though that Ghana seeks to process them domestically, rather than exporting them in raw form, and create more economic value, ideally in partnership with other countries like South Korea and its companies.

"What we're looking for is a win-win situation," he said. "Korea has technologies, AI (artificial intelligence) tools for doing exploration."

"We can set up processing plants to process the minerals and add value, before we export them," he added.

For many South Koreans, Ghana is best known through "Ghana Chocolate," the iconic bar produced by Lotte using cocoa sourced from the West African country.

While that association may remain, bilateral ties between the two countries are expanding into a new partnership in trade and investment, the president said, adding that Ghana aims to establish itself as a major production hub for exports in Africa.

"We already have some Korean businesses in Ghana, including Kia Motors, in the fishing and agricultural industries," he said. "We want to expand that footprint and see more Korean investments in Ghana."

Mahama said Ghana can also serve as a gateway for South Korean companies to access the wider African market, thanks to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), headquartered in its capital city of Accra.

"The AfCFTA covers 54 countries of 1.4 billion people," he said. "Africa would look to leverage Korea's competitive advantage, (for Korea) to be able to invest on the continent and not only create prosperity and employment, but also pass on technology and know-how to Africa."

Mahama has visited South Korea four times, including this week's trip, reflecting his personal ties with the country.

During his previous visit in 2023, he toured a showroom of Hyundai Motor, where the company's Genesis models caught his eye.

The Genesis vehicles are now Mahama's official presidential cars.

"It was a very beautiful piece of engineering and so I decided to acquire some of those vehicles. I bought myself," he said.

His appointment of Kojo Choi, a Korean Ghanaian, as Ghana's ambassador to South Korea, faced some pushback at home. Mahama said he chose Choi for the role because he bridges Korean and Ghanaian cultures, a decision that is already proving to be successful.

"He blends the two cultures," he said. "We thought that we couldn't get a more excellent person to represent Ghana in Korea than Ambassador Choi."

Mahama said South Korea's hosting of the first summit with African countries in 2024 demonstrated the potential for a deeper partnership between the two sides, with Korea's continued commitment to concessional loans for African nations.

"Those summits are important because they bring the African leaders together and (they) say, how do we spend this two billion dollars? What are the priority areas for Africa? So I think that approach is mutually beneficial to both sides," he said.

South Korea and Africa are set to hold a foreign ministerial meeting in June, which could serve as an occasion for follow-up discussions, Mahama said.

Regarding the conflict in the Middle East and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mahama voiced regret over unilateral actions taken by some countries that disregard international law and fail to uphold the U.N. system.

"That is a recipe for conflict and disturbance of global peace," he said.

"For countries like Korea, Ghana and others, we must continue to insist that countries must respect the international laws that all of us have agreed to govern ourselves by," the president added.

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