Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2668 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Zambia enacted the Income Tax (Amendment) (No. 2) Act No. 17 of 2025, assented to 23 December 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, introducing two mining-specific fiscal provisions. First, interest deductibility is capped at 30% of tax EBITDA for all companies, with unrelieved interest carry-forwardable for up to five years (general) or ten years for entities in mining and electricity generation. Second, mining companies deriving at least 75% of gross income in foreign exchange from outside Zambia may maintain their books of accounts in US dollars, reducing FX translation risk for dollar-denominated operators. Both measures are structurally distinct from the concurrent Act No. 10 of 2025 (Minimum Alternative Tax and loss carry-forward cap).

Arrêté ministériel n° 00964/CAB.MIN/MINES/01/2025, signed 19 December 2025 by DRC Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba, suspends with immediate effect all activities of entities (notably comptoirs d'achat / buying counters, treatment units and similar structures) involved in the purchase, processing, transformation and commercialisation of copper and cobalt minerals sourced from artisanal exploitation across the country. Industrial, legally established mining operators are excluded. The order requires affected entities to submit compliance documentation within ten days, establishes an ad hoc commission to verify administrative, legal, technical and traceability conformity (15-day review window), and obliges operators to demonstrate the lawful origin of their supplies in line with OECD due-diligence guidance. Framed as a "conservatory" measure to restore order in the cupro-cobaltifère value chain and curb illicit exports.

On 4 December 2025, the United States and the Democratic Republic of the Congo signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement on Trade and Investment, executed at a White House trilateral ceremony alongside the parallel U.S.-Rwanda framework and witnessed by President Trump, President Tshisekedi (DRC), and President Kagame (Rwanda). The Agreement creates a Strategic Minerals Reserve (SMR) and a Strategic Asset Reserve (SAR) under DRC sovereignty, gives U.S. persons preferential access to SAR assets, and commits DRC and its state-owned enterprises to route at least 30% of their commercialised cobalt volumes through the Sakania-Lobito Corridor within five years. A Joint Steering Committee (JSC) co-chaired by State and DRC's Ministry of Economy holds its inaugural meeting on 4-5 February 2026, designating the initial SAR asset list and launching implementation. The DFC announced a proposed equity investment in a Gécamines-Mercuria copper/cobalt joint venture as the first commercial vehicle under the framework.

Zambia's Statutory Instrument No. 68 of 2025 under the Geological and Minerals Development Act 2022 establishes the first binding procurement-quota local-content regime in the Zambian copper-cobalt mining sector, entering into force 1 January 2026. Mining and mining-related companies must reserve a minimum 20% of their annual procurement budget for Zambian-owned or citizen-empowered suppliers of core mining goods and services, escalating to 25% in year two and 35% in year three, targeting 40% within five years. All non-core ancillary services (catering, security, haulage, cleaning, gardening) are reserved exclusively for Zambian-owned companies. The instrument operationalises the Minerals Regulation Commission created under the 2024 MRC Act and completes the ZM resource-nationalism statute stack.

On 8 October 2025 the Australian Government (Albanese) and Queensland Government (Crisafulli) jointly announced up to AUD 600 million in co-funding — split evenly at AUD 300 million each — to keep Glencore's Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery operating through at least 2028. Funding is structured as three tranches of up to AUD 200 million released over three years, contingent on completion of a transformation study and further review points. The package protects more than 600 direct jobs at the smelter/refinery plus roughly 500 further jobs at the adjacent Phosphate Hill facility, and preserves roughly half of Australia's total copper smelting capacity. It follows Glencore's October 2023 announcement of intended closure and a July 2025 end-of-operations notice, with Glencore describing the deal as a short-term lifeline after absorbing sustained financial losses.

Zambia enacted the Income Tax (Amendment) Act No. 10 of 2025 on 8 August 2025, gazetted 19 August 2025, introducing three interlocking fiscal measures. First, a 1% Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) on annual turnover applies to all companies and partnerships, creditable against standard income tax with a five-year carry-forward — directly raising the floor tax burden on large copper and cobalt mining groups that have historically reported low taxable profits. Second, the 50% annual loss carry-forward cap (previously mining-sector-specific) is universalised, reducing the tax-shelter advantage for capital-intensive mining projects with front-loaded losses. Third, withholding tax on government-securities interest is raised from 15% to 20%.

Loi n° 25-12 du 3 août 2025 governing mining activities, promulgated by President Tebboune and published in the Algerian Journal Officiel n° 52 on 7 August 2025, replaces Loi 14-05 of 2014 and is Algeria's first comprehensive mining-code overhaul in eleven years. The reform raises the foreign-ownership ceiling in mining-exploitation companies to 80% of share capital (with a non-dilutable 20% reserved for an Algerian State-owned enterprise), abolishes the prior "strategic substances" category and the statutory monopoly that accompanied it, and allows foreign companies to apply directly for prospection authorisations and exploration permits without first incorporating a local entity. The 51/49 majority-Algerian rule remains in place for quarries and for the hydrocarbons regime — the reform is mining-specific.

South African Cabinet on 25 June 2025 approved a three-part package to revitalise the domestic ferrochrome sector: (i) placement of chrome ore under export control via the International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) under the International Trade Administration Act 71 of 2002, requiring an export permit prior to dispatch; (ii) initiation of work on a chrome ore export tax (rate not finalised; market reporting cites 25%); (iii) expanded SEZ incentives for ferrochrome smelters and a negotiated electricity- tariff relief mechanism. The DTIC notice formally placing chrome ore under export control was published in Government Gazette No. 53477 General Notice 6712 on 3 October 2025 with a 30-day public-comment window closing 31 October 2025; the final permit regime takes effect upon subsequent ministerial gazette notice. South Africa accounts for >70% of seaborne chrome ore exports, so the regime is globally material to stainless-steel supply chains.

South Africa's Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) released the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy on 20 May 2025 following Cabinet approval, alongside the gazetting of the Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) 2025. The strategy classifies platinum group metals, manganese, iron ore, chrome ore and coal as "high criticality" and identifies seven intervention areas — exploration, beneficiation at source, R&D coordination by Mintek, regional integration (SADC), financial instruments, energy security, and international partnerships positioning South Africa for CRMA-equivalent partnerships with the US and EU. It is the first formal South African industrial-policy framework for critical-mineral beneficiation and the first ZA action in the IPTM register.

South African Cabinet on 20 May 2025 approved the publication of the Draft Mineral Resources Development Bill (MRDB) 2025, gazetted by Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Gwede Mantashe to amend the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA). The Bill streamlines mining-rights administration by aligning with NEMA and the National Water Act, introduces a new licensing regime for artisanal and small-scale mining, and acts as the legislative implementing instrument for the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy approved at the same Cabinet sitting. Public-comment window ran through 13 August 2025; the Bill has not yet been enacted.

On 22 February 2025 the Authority for the Regulation and Control of Strategic Mineral Substance Markets (ARECOMS) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo issued Decision No. 001/ARECOMS/2025 imposing a four-month suspension of all cobalt exports — industrial and artisanal — in response to a multi-year cobalt price collapse driven by structural oversupply from CMOC's Tenke Fungurume and Kisanfu mines. The DRC accounts for roughly 70-76% of global mined cobalt, so the ban removed the dominant source of feedstock from the seaborne market. The ban was extended in late June 2025 by another three months, then on 10 October 2025 ARECOMS issued Decision No. 005/ARECOMS/2025 lifting the outright suspension and replacing it with a hard annual export quota: 18,125 t for the November-December 2025 transition window, then 96,600 t per year for 2026 and 2027. The annual ceiling consists of an 87,000 t "base quota" distributed pro-rata using each producer's January 2022 - December 2024 historical export volumes, plus a 9,600 t "strategic quota" allocated at ARECOMS' sole discretion to projects of national strategic importance. Allocations for Q4 2025 went disproportionately to the largest incumbents: CMOC received 6,500 t (Tenke Fungurume + Kisanfu), Glencore 3,925 t (Kamoto + Mutanda), and Eurasian Resources Group 2,125 t (Metalkol). CMOC's award is far below its ~115 kt 2024 production rate, structurally capping the world's top cobalt producer below 30% of its operating capacity. Exporters must obtain a Quota Verification Certificate (AVQ) from ARECOMS, submit to joint sampling, weighing, sealing and physical inspection by multiple government agencies, and prepay the 10% mining royalty within 48 hours of declaring origin and sale. ARECOMS reserves the right to revise quotas quarterly in case of "significant imbalance in the cobalt market," and explicitly retained discretion to re-set 2027 volumes. The measure is the EM resource-nationalism complement to Indonesia's nickel-ore ban template, applied to the single material where one country has the most concentrated global supply share.