Ghana’s Attorney General has initiated a move to place an injunction on Cassius Mining in a bid to stop it from going to seek arbitration outside the jurisdiction until the final determination by the court of Arbitration in Ghana.
The AG has thus filed a motion for interim injunction to restrain Cassius Mining in this regard. The application for interim injunction is expected to be heard in court on 12th July 2023. The order for an interim injunction is to restrain the respondent from instituting or pursuing any arbitration outside the jurisdiction of Ghana under the prospecting License Agreement dated 28th December 2016 entered into between the Government of Ghana and the Respondent or taking any step whatsoever in international Arbitration proceedings against the government of Ghana until the arbitration instituted by the respondents against the applicant at the Ghana Arbitration Center has been heard and determined and for any further orders as the court may seem.
Clause 21 of the Prospecting License Agreement granted to the claimant provided that the arbitration is to be in “accordance with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 2010 (Act 798).” Section 5(1) of Ghana’s ADR Act is expressly “subject to the terms of the arbitration agreement,” and the UNCITRAL Rules clearly are neither a “person” nor an “institution for arbitration” contemplated by Section 5 of the ADR Act.
