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The UEMOA Council of Ministers adopted Règlement N°02/2023/CM/UEMOA at its session of 16 June 2023 held at the BCEAO (Central Bank of West African States) in Niamey, Niger. The regulation repeals and replaces the previous Règlement N°18/2003/CM/UEMOA — the first revision to the regional mining framework in two decades.
The code establishes:
1. Harmonised permit tracks: Standardised reconnaissance, exploration, and exploitation permit procedures across all eight member states; uniform timelines, minimum work programmes, and renewal conditions.
2. Royalty and tax floors: Bloc-wide baseline rates for surface fees, ad-valorem royalties, and applicable taxes on mining revenues; member states retain the right to set higher rates but must respect the regional minima.
3. Rehabilitation and closure fund: Mandatory provision mechanism requiring permit holders to fund and operate mine rehabilitation and closure accounts; the Commission has drafted implementing regulations specifying the fund's governance and operation rules.
4. Community-contribution obligations: Standardised local-development contribution requirements incorporated into permit conditions.
5. Conformity mandate: Member states must transpose the code into national legislation within a prescribed period. As of mid-2026, Mali and Senegal had held consultations with UEMOA Commission officials (Commissioner Koffi Koffi Paul) on implementation; full transposition is uneven across the bloc.
This instrument is the supranational layer under which all UEMOA-member national mining code reforms operate. National codes already filed in the register for Burkina Faso (Loi 016-2024), Mali (Loi 2023-040), and Niger must respect the royalty, environmental, and state-carry floors embedded here. The UEMOA code therefore sets the FDI term envelope for all major operators active in West Africa's artisanal and industrial mining sectors.
The filing closes the UEMOA=0 gap in the action register — the bloc is the first supranational issuer in sub-Saharan Africa to harmonise mining law and was entirely unrepresented despite covering six material-significant producers.
Key company exposures: