Libreville, July 16, 2026 – For decades, Africa’s mineral wealth has flowed abroad, leaving mining communities with crumbling infrastructure, weak public services, and a deep sense of economic abandonment. Gabon is now challenging this pattern by redirecting a portion of its mining revenue directly into local development.
Under a revised agreement with Comilog—the world’s leading producer of high-grade manganese and a subsidiary of France’s Eramet Group—Gabon now allocates 20% of its proportional mining royalty to the Local Communities Development Fund. Additional funds from extraction taxes on Comilog’s quarries further bolster this initiative, channeling resources straight into the hands of the regions that fuel the country’s mining engine.
This shift marks a fundamental change in Gabon’s mining philosophy. The focus is no longer solely on tax revenue or export volumes, but on transforming natural resources into tools for territorial cohesion and human progress.
Breaking free from the resource curse
The paradox of resource-rich regions remaining among the poorest has long plagued African economies. Gabon, the world’s second-largest manganese producer, has not been spared. Mining zones have borne the brunt of environmental and social costs without always seeing tangible returns from the wealth extracted beneath their soil.
The 2019 Mining Code reform, later strengthened by a 2020 addendum with Comilog, represents a decisive break from this cycle. For the first time, a fixed share of mining revenues is automatically earmarked for affected communities, bypassing the uncertainties of national budget allocations.
This model aligns Gabon with successful frameworks in countries like Botswana and Canada, where social acceptance of mining hinges on a fairer distribution of benefits.
A shared governance structure
The initiative is built on a tripartite governance model involving the State, local authorities, and the mining operator. The Partnership Management Committee sets strategic priorities, while the Operational Management Committee oversees technical execution. This structure ensures that investments are not dictated solely from distant capitals but reflect the real needs of mining regions.
Projects span critical infrastructure—schools, health centers, water access—as well as local economic initiatives and job creation. Early results are already visible. By 2025, Comilog’s funding mechanisms had enabled 26 community projects, totaling nearly 8.5 billion CFA francs in investments and benefiting around 240,000 people in mining basins. In a country of under three million inhabitants, these figures underscore the transformative potential of the approach.
Pioneering a new African mining contract
The stakes extend far beyond Gabon’s borders. Global demand for critical minerals is surging, driven by the energy transition, electric mobility, and digital technologies. Manganese, essential for battery production and industrial applications, sits at the heart of this new economic order.
Central Africa holds vast reserves of these strategic resources. The real challenge now is not how much mineral wealth Africa exports, but how much of it stays to finance education, healthcare, infrastructure, and economic diversification.
Comilog has pledged to support this transition by fostering local entrepreneurship, vocational training, and income-generating activities to gradually reduce dependence on extractive industries alone.
If this vision holds, Gabon could emerge as a model for a new mining compact—one where corporate success is measured not just in tons exported or dividends paid, but in schools built, businesses launched, sustainable jobs created, and opportunities opened for future generations. The legitimacy of Africa’s industrial giants will increasingly be judged on these very criteria.