Unlocking the mining potential
New players operate in the mining sector while the government keeps modernizing the transport network
While oil has been Gabon’s main asset for six decades, mining is also an important, albeit lesser source of revenues. In particular, Gabon has rich reserves of manganese and gold, estimated at respectively 165 million and 44 tons.
The government is keen to boost and diversify this sector, notably by increasing the number of operators. In January 2015, therefore, it introduced a new mining code and it has since given out new prospecting or exploration permits for iron, copper, diamonds and other minerals. In 2017, it sold seven additional licenses to four companies involved in gold mining: Alpha Centauri Mining, Gabon Gold, Maxi Gold and the Equatorial Mining Company (SEM).
Alpha Centauri is a good example of a medium-sized private company contributing to the diversification of the Gabonese economy. It says it “chose to invest in Gabon due to its sustained political stability and huge untapped and unexplored mineral resource base.” The government hopes to quadruple the mining sector’s economic contribution by 2025 as part of its Industrial Gabon development plan. “Gold has been classified as a strategic mineral and, according to the Ministry of Mines, a mere 30 percent of the country has been fully explored, which is a low figure in light of the vast mineral wealth of some of Gabon’s southern neighbors,” says Anand Bajla, managing director of Alpha Centauri. The company, which is based in Gabon and owned by Dubai and London-based investors, also has an interesting plan to increase production and curb smuggling, which is to “get artisans together and establish co-operatives, teaching them how to mine in the right way and using the right machinery to respect the environment,” adds Bajla. This scheme would contribute to reducing smuggling, which Alpha Centauri estimates to be worth some 60 billion francs CFA annually (about $103 million).
A key condition for increasing mining production and sales is to have a proper transportation infrastructure, notably roads and railways. Gabon’s transport network is quite developed, but “the system was in crisis a few years back,” acknowledges Minister of Transport and Tourism Justin Ndoundangoye. “We are thus in a process of modernization through a new management model and the upgrading of our infrastructure in maritime transport, railways and roads.” The minister says the port of Owendo is a good example of this modernization push. The new port facility near the capital Libreville is a multi-modal rail and marine port with an 11-million-ton capacity mineral terminal connected to the Gabon Special Economic Zone.
"We chose to invest in Gabon because of its sustained political stability and huge, untapped mineral base." Anand Bajla, Managing Director, Alpha Centauri Mining
Gabon is a coastal country crisscrossed by rivers so maritime and fluvial transportation is a key part of the system. This is the remit of the publicly owned National Company for Internal and International Navigation (Compagnie Nationale de Navigation Intérieure et Internationale, CNNII), whose main routes are by sea Libreville to Port Gentil and Port Gentil to Gamba and Mayumba in the south, and by river Port Gentil to Lambaréné in the center of the country.
General Manager Claude Abdon Tchibinda explains that the main objective now is to offer direct service between Gabon and countries that import its goods: “There are no direct lines with some of the countries of the sub-region, such as Morocco for example. This means our goods need to be sent to Europe and then re-directed to their destination in Africa. This ‘triangular trade’ is of course costly and time consuming, so our main objective now is to create direct routes and thus boost our trade.”