Libreville, Thursday, July 16, 2026 — For decades, African nations have exported vast mineral wealth while the communities living near mining sites often struggled with crumbling infrastructure, weak public services, and a persistent sense of economic exclusion. Gabon is now challenging this long-standing pattern by redirecting a portion of its mining revenue back into local development.
Under a revised agreement between the Gabonese government and Compagnie Minière de l’Ogooué—a leading global producer of high-grade manganese and a subsidiary of France’s Eramet—20% of the proportional mining royalty is now allocated to the Local Community Development Fund. An additional share, derived from the extraction tax on quarries operated by the company, further boosts the fund earmarked for mining regions.
This policy shift reflects a profound transformation in Gabon’s mining doctrine. The focus is no longer solely on tax revenues or export volumes but on leveraging natural resources to foster territorial cohesion and human development.
Breaking the resource curse cycle
The so-called “resource curse” has plagued African economies for generations: why do regions rich in minerals often remain among the poorest on the continent? Gabon, the world’s second-largest manganese producer, has confronted this paradox directly. Mining areas have long borne the environmental and social costs of extraction without seeing visible returns from the wealth unearthed beneath their soil.
The reform of the Mining Code, initiated in 2019 and strengthened by a 2020 addendum with Comilog, represents a significant milestone. For the first time, a portion of mining revenue is automatically channeled to affected communities—outside the national budgetary process—ensuring that local needs take priority.
This approach aligns Gabon with successful models in places like Botswana and Canada, where social acceptance of mining hinges on fair benefit-sharing. By embedding equity into the process, Gabon is turning a historical liability into a strategic advantage.
A shared governance model
The system is built on a tripartite governance structure involving the state, local authorities, and the mining operator. The Partnership Management Committee sets strategic priorities, while the Operational Management Committee oversees technical implementation and project execution. This decentralized approach prevents investment decisions from being made in distant capitals, disconnected from on-the-ground realities.
Funds are directed toward critical public infrastructure, healthcare facilities, schools, water access, local economic initiatives, and job creation. Early results are already visible. Comilog reports that by 2025, 26 community projects had been completed, totaling nearly 8.5 billion CFA francs in investments and benefiting around 240,000 people in mining areas—an impressive impact in a country of fewer than three million inhabitants.
Pioneering a new African mining contract
The stakes extend far beyond Gabon’s borders. Global demand for strategic minerals is surging, driven by the energy transition, electric mobility, and digital technologies. Manganese, essential for battery production and industrial alloys, sits at the heart of this transformation. Central Africa holds a major share of the world’s reserves of such critical minerals.
The real question is no longer how much ore Africa will export—but how much of that wealth will remain to finance education, health, infrastructure, and economic diversification. Comilog has pledged to support local entrepreneurship, vocational training, and income-generating activities to gradually reduce dependence on extractive industries in mining regions.
If sustained over time, Gabon’s model could position the country as a leading laboratory for a new social contract between mining companies, the state, and local populations. In the 21st century, the true value of a mine is no longer measured solely in tons shipped or dividends paid—it is measured in classrooms built, businesses launched, jobs created, and opportunities unlocked for future generations. This is the benchmark by which Africa’s mining giants will now be judged.
