- Gabon signs manganese processing deals with Chinese firms.
- Raw manganese export ban takes effect on January 1, 2029.
- Largest planned alloy plant could start only in 2031, analysts say.
- No processing project has reached a final investment decision.
GABON has signed agreements with Chinese companies to build manganese processing capacity, but the plants are not due until after a ban on raw ore exports takes effect in 2029.
The government signed a memorandum on November 6 with South Manganese Investment to develop a plant to process ore from the M’Bembele deposit. The project is estimated to cost 116.7 billion CFA francs ($198 million).
A day earlier, the government, Eramet Comilog and China’s Sinohydro signed a letter of intent to study hydroelectric plants that would power a planned manganese alloy plant near Libreville.
The deals were signed during President Brice Oligui Nguema’s state visit to China. In a joint statement, the two countries agreed to deepen mining cooperation, and China said it would support Gabon in turning its resource advantages into drivers of development.
Gabon, the world’s second-largest manganese producer, will ban exports of raw manganese from January 1, 2029. The aim is to encourage local processing, create skilled jobs and raise tax revenue.
Eramet’s largest planned coastal alloy plant, with capacity of 265,000 tonnes a year, could start operating only in 2031, analysts say. That leaves a two-year gap after the ban begins.
No Gabonese manganese processing project has reached a final investment decision, and South Manganese must still set out its construction timetable and financing, according to Ecofin Agency.
Eramet, whose Comilog unit runs the world’s largest manganese mine at Moanda, pledged in 2025 to safeguard more than 10,000 jobs in Gabon and said it would work with the government on the ban.
The sequencing problem is familiar in Zimbabwe, which suspended raw lithium concentrate exports in February when only one major producer had a working sulphate plant, according to a report by the Critical Minerals Africa Group. “A ban takes a day. A plant takes years,” the report said.
