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CAR's National Assembly adopted a new Mining Code in May 2024, replacing the framework that had governed the sector since the early 2000s. The law's three structurally significant elements are:
1. GEMINCA — state monopsony over precious mineral purchasing The code creates GEMINCA (Gemmes et Minéraux de Centrafrique), a state-owned enterprise designated as the mandatory purchaser of precious and semi-precious minerals (diamonds, gold, coloured gemstones). This structurally peers to Guinea's Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée (CBG) state-channelling role for bauxite and to the DRC's ARECOMS framework for cobalt. GEMINCA inserts a sovereign intermediary between artisanal miners and the international trading market, creating a chokepoint through which mineral revenues must flow before reaching export channels. With ~150,000 people employed in CAR's informal diamond sector, the practical ability to enforce this mandate will be the decisive implementation variable.
2. SONADERM — state geological monopoly and investment gateway SONADERM (Société Nationale de Développement des Ressources Minérales) is assigned the geological survey and mineral-promotion mandate, concentrating domain knowledge of CAR's mineral resources in a state entity. All exploration licensing access will ultimately depend on SONADERM's geological database, creating a state-controlled information gateway for FDI in the sector. This is particularly significant for uranium: CAR holds known uranium deposits in the Bakouma area (Ndassima project previously held by Areva/Orano) that have attracted periodic Chinese interest.
3. EITI/KP/ICGLR compliance gate All mining title holders must comply with EITI requirements, Kimberley Process certification standards, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Regional Initiative against Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources. This compliance gate has two effects: (a) it systematically forecloses informal operators and non-compliant intermediaries, who are the dominant actors in CAR's diamond trade; (b) it aligns with the November 2024 KP readmission, which restored CAR's access to legal international rough diamond channels precisely when the new code creates the institutional infrastructure to route exports through those channels.
The Mining Code is the second of a two-instrument package reshaping CAR's minerals sector in late 2024:
Together they represent a comprehensive "open-and-regulate" pivot: international access restored, but channelled through new sovereign intermediaries with higher compliance friction.