Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 23 April 2025 CMOC Group (HKG:3993) announced the acquisition of TSXV-listed Lumina Gold Corp — 100% owner of the Cangrejos (Los Cangrejos) gold-copper project in El Oro Province, southwestern Ecuador — via a court-sanctioned plan of arrangement at C$1.27/share (C$581M / ~USD 420M); the transaction closed on 24 June 2025 through a Singapore subsidiary, making Cangrejos Ecuador's largest primary gold deposit under full Chinese operational control. On 27 April 2026 CMOC's Ecuadorian subsidiary ODIN Mining del Ecuador signed a 26-year exploitation contract with Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Mines committing >$1.7B in total investment (~$54M advance royalties, $34M paid on signing); commercial production is targeted for 2028 at ~11.5 t/yr gold (~370,000 oz/yr), making the state-projected total revenues $4.39B over the mine life. The acquisition extends CMOC's critical-mineral portfolio — anchored in DRC cobalt/copper — into Ecuadorian gold and copper, concentrating a globally significant undeveloped gold-copper deposit under Chinese operational control ahead of the competing 2026 Ecuador–US Critical Minerals Bilateral Framework.

On 21 April 2025, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed Presidential Resolution No. PP-145 "On the Privatization of Large Enterprises with State Participation on International Markets," establishing the 2025–2028 roadmap for selling minority equity stakes (10–25%) in 12 major state-owned enterprises via IPO/SPO on international and domestic exchanges, and full/near-full stakes in 29 further enterprises through competitive public tenders. The resolution introduced a three-tier asset-segmentation framework — large SOEs (IPO/SPO with international advisor mandates), medium SOEs (domestic stock-exchange sale), and small assets/real estate (e-platform sale) — and mandated engagement of international investment banks and a State Privatization Commission to oversee implementation. It was issued the same day as the sister Presidential Decree UP-70 "On the Privatization Program for 2025," which approved a 2025 annual program targeting 30 trillion UZS (~USD 2.4 bn) in state-asset disposals across 115 companies, 659 real-estate properties, and 6,100 hectares of land.

Government Regulation No. 19 of 2025 on Types and Rates of Non-Tax State Revenue (PNBP) applicable to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, signed by President Prabowo Subianto on 11 Apr 2025 and effective 26 Apr 2025 (15 working days after promulgation), revokes PP 26/2022 and replaces fixed mining royalty rates with a progressive tiered system anchored to international benchmark prices (HMA for nickel, HBA for coal). Headline shifts: nickel ore from fixed 10% to 14–19% by HMA tier; ferronickel 2% → 4–6%; nickel matte 2% → 3.5–5.5%; NPI 5% → 5–7%; copper cathode 2% → 4–7%; tin 3% → 3–10%; gold 3.75–10% → 7–16%; coal up to 13.5% at HBA >USD 90 for >5,200 kcal/kg grades. The regulation is the cornerstone fiscal lever of the Prabowo nickel-downstreaming/hilirisasi 2.0 strategy alongside RKAB-quota tightening that cut national nickel quotas from 272m to 150m tonnes for 2025.

Pakistan launched the National Minerals Harmonisation Framework 2025 and the Mines & Minerals Act 2025 at the Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum (Islamabad, 8–9 April 2025), consolidating six regulatory frameworks, eight legislative instruments, and 36 rule sets into a unified federal-provincial licensing system. The framework — convened by the SIFC and Deputy PM Ishaq Dar — establishes a two-tier licensing structure (large-scale: PKR 500M+; small-scale: PKR 25M–500M), mandatory appellate tribunal, and a "Mines and Minerals Force" to counter illegal mining in Sindh and Balochistan. Fiscal-incentive reforms aim to raise investor IRR from 14.5% to approximately 18%, underpinned by Reko Diq as the flagship precedent for future large-scale foreign-capital mineral projects.

Ghana's Parliament passed the Ghana Gold Board Act, 2025 (Act 1140) on 29 March 2025; presidential assent followed on 2 April 2025, with full operational effect from 1 May 2025. The Act repeals PNDCL 219 (1989) and establishes the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) as the sole statutory licensor and exclusive primary buyer, seller, assayer, grader, weigher and exporter of all gold produced by the country's licensed Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) sector. Large-scale mining operations remain outside the monopsony. Effective 1 May 2025, no person other than GoldBod may export ASM gold from Ghana, and all gold trading and marketing businesses must hold a GoldBod licence (application window for Ghanaian-owned firms opened 22 April 2025). Proceeds from all ASM gold exports settle through the Bank of Ghana, channelling foreign-exchange flows from roughly 30% of national gold output — Ghana is the world's #6 producer and Africa's largest — into formal central-bank reserves. The stated objectives are to combat smuggling, capture the smuggling-loss premium for the state, support Bank of Ghana gold-reserves accumulation, and generate foreign exchange. The Act sits alongside the Bank of Ghana's Domestic Gold Purchase Programme as the legal infrastructure for Ghana's gold-as-reserve-asset strategy.

Papua New Guinea's Parliament passed the Income Tax Act 2025 (Act No. 11 of 2025) on 20 March 2025, replacing the Income Tax Act 1959 in its entirety and taking effect from 1 January 2026. The Act introduces PNG's first-ever capital gains tax (CGT) at a flat 15% rate on gains from the direct or indirect disposal of interests in extractive assets (mining tenements, petroleum licences, and associated infrastructure). An offshore indirect transfer rule closes the longstanding "Double Dutch" structure used to transfer PNG mineral licences via overseas holding-company share sales without PNG tax exposure: any transaction resulting in a 10%-or-greater change in beneficial ownership of a PNG extractive licensee triggers a notification obligation and deemed disposal, crystallising CGT liability for the offshore transferor. No sector carve-out exists; KPMG and PwC analyses confirm CGT applies uniformly to all mining, oil, and gas disposals.

President Trump signed Executive Order 14241 on 20 March 2025 (Federal Register publication 25 March 2025) invoking Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III sections 301, 302, and 303 — and selected Title VII authorities — for domestic critical-mineral production, and delegated those authorities to the Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The order operationalises the "national energy emergency" declared by EO 14156 (Jan 2025) to waive certain DPA §303 congressional-notification thresholds, designates "mineral production" as an Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program priority, expands the EO definition of "critical minerals" to include uranium, copper, potash, gold (and any further item designated by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council), and directs the Departments of the Interior, Energy, Treasury, and EXIM Bank to mobilise federal lands, permitting, and financing to expand US upstream and midstream capacity. EO 14241 is the cross-cutting domestic-mineral umbrella authority of the second Trump administration, paired with FY2025 supplemental appropriations (USD 2bn National Defense Stockpile, USD 5bn Industrial Base Fund) and complemented by the 24 April 2025 follow-on EO on offshore minerals and the 8 April 2025 coal amendment.

On 14 March 2025, the Provincial Assembly of Balochistan passed the Balochistan Mines and Minerals Act 2025 in a swift, sparsely debated session. The Act establishes the Mineral Investment Facilitation Authority (MIFA) under Section 22, a body composed of provincial and federal members but operating under the umbrella of the federal Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC). MIFA is empowered to designate "strategic" minerals with federal oversight, override provincial mining-department decisions, and channel licensing for the Reko Diq, Saindak and broader Chagai-belt copper-gold-REE deposits to investment vehicles aligned with the Foreign Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act 2022. The Act drew sharp criticism for recentralising mineral authority that the 18th Constitutional Amendment had devolved to provinces, and for omitting any community-participation mechanism. On 23 September 2025 Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti announced suspension of the Act by executive order pending re-tabling for further deliberation, after a joint meeting with opposition leaders.

Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandon issued Order No. 06/PM on 7 March 2025 introducing two headline measures: (i) a permanent nationwide ban on all alluvial gold extraction, including gravel- and sand-suction methods, and (ii) a moratorium on approval of any new metallic-mineral projects for the remainder of the current government term. The Order also mandates enhanced monitoring and inspection of existing licensed mining operations, with particular focus on environmental compliance and remediation. Rationale cited by the PM includes recurring landslide and water-contamination incidents attributed to unregulated artisanal and semi-industrial extraction. This is the first instrument issued under the post-2024-Investment-Promotion-Law framework that directly constrains new-mine pipeline development in Laos, reversing the outward-FDI-friendly signal that Law 62/NA had sent to Chinese-backed project sponsors.

The Government of Papua New Guinea released the Mining Bill 2025 for public consultation on 25 February 2025, with submissions due 4 April 2025, targeting Cabinet endorsement and parliamentary tabling by PNG's 50th Independence anniversary on 16 September 2025. The Bill replaces the Mining Act 1992 and formalises a "Take Back PNG" resource-nationalist framework: the State gains a right to acquire up to 30% equity in any mining project on deferred-payment terms, royalties are tiered at 5% gross revenue (where State takes equity) or 10% gross revenue (where it does not), and mining-lease holders must offer at least 50% of production to domestic smelters/refineries where such capacity exists. Projects at Wafi-Golpu and Frieda River are grandfathered under the 1992 Act.

Naalakkersuisut (Government of Greenland), via the Mineral Resources Authority under Minister Naaja H. Nathanielsen, published the Mineral Resources Strategy 2025-2029 in January 2025. The strategy succeeds the 2020-2024 strategy and sets the operational priorities, licensing pipeline and investor-engagement framework for Greenland's mineral sector across the 2025-2029 window. Headline tracks: sustainability (social/environmental/ economic), targeted international marketing and export-import-bank cooperation to mobilise project finance, formal critical-minerals partnerships with the EU and the US (and Nordic regional cooperation), a certification system for small-scale licensees, and expanded geoscientific data availability. The 2021 Inatsisartut Act prohibiting uranium-bearing exploration and exploitation above 100 ppm is preserved.

New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), under Resources Minister Hon Shane Jones, launched the country's first national Minerals Strategy and first Critical Minerals List on 31 January 2025 at OceanaGold's Waihi gold mining operation in Hauraki. The Critical Minerals List identifies 37 minerals essential to New Zealand's economy, national security, and technology needs — including gold and metallurgical coal added in the final version (up from 35 minerals in the September 2024 draft consultation). The Minerals Strategy sets a target of doubling New Zealand mineral exports from approximately NZD 1.2 billion/year to NZD 3 billion by 2035, supported by a Wood Mackenzie advisory assessment (December 2024) that identified 21 of the 37 listed minerals as domestically produced or having domestic production potential.

Loi n° 2024-1109 du 18 décembre 2024 portant Budget de l'État pour l'année 2025 (and its annexe fiscale, JO n° 21 of 26 December 2024, entered into force 10 January 2025) raises Côte d'Ivoire's gold ad valorem royalty (taxe ad valorem sur l'or) by two percentage points across all five price tiers — from 3% to 5% at gold ≤ USD 1,000/oz up to 6% to 8% at gold > USD 2,000/oz. The increase applies to all gold producers operating under the Code Minier régime and is collected on the value of gold extracted at the applicable USD-per-ounce reference price. First IPTM entry for Côte d'Ivoire; sits alongside the wider West/Central African mining-fiscal-tightening cycle (Mali 2024 implementing decree, Burkina Faso 2024 ALT mining code, Madagascar 2023 mining code refonte) and reflects a Ouattara-government posture of capturing more of the gold-price super-cycle for the state budget.

Mauritania's Loi n°2024-045 of 18 December 2024 establishes a horizontal local-content statutory framework covering the mining, hydrocarbons, gas, and energy sectors. The law requires operators and their subcontractors to submit triennial forecasting plans and annual performance reports on national employment and local-supplier integration, and mandates a Conseil National du Contenu Local to develop national strategy and policy. An implementing decree approved by the Council of Ministers on 2 September 2025 operationalises the law's institutional architecture, creating a digital monitoring platform for centralised employment and subcontracting traceability and introducing performance-incentive and administrative-sanction regimes.

The European Commission adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/4 on 17 December 2024, imposing definitive five-year anti-dumping duties on imports of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) originating in China, published in the OJ on 9 January 2025. Duty rates are differentiated by Chinese exporter: €0.25/kg for Anhui Jinhe Star (Gold Star), €0.74/kg for Lomon Billions Group and all non-cooperating exporters, and €0.64/kg for other cooperating producers — converting the provisional ad-valorem duties (14.4%–39.7%) imposed by CR 2024/1923 in July 2024 into specific definitive measures covering CN codes 3206 11 00 and 3206 19 00. China filed WTO dispute DS636 in April 2025 challenging the measure.

President Paul Biya promulgated Décret n° 2024/05061 on 13 December 2024, operationalising the procedural architecture of the 2023 Code Minier (Loi n° 2023/014) for the issuance, transfer, renewal, and withdrawal of mining titles, exploration permits, and exploitation licences. The decree establishes the administrative workflow through which SONAMINES exercises its 10% free-carry right and the State may take equity participation, making it the gating instrument for upstream FDI in Cameroonian iron-ore (Mbalam-Nabeba), bauxite (Minim-Martap), and cobalt-nickel (Nkamouna) projects. A companion Décret n° 2024/05062 (modalités des opérations minières) was issued the same date to complete the implementation package.

Government of Romania Decision (Hotărârea de Guvern) nr. 1464 of 21 November 2024, published in Monitorul Oficial Part I no. 1212bis of 3 December 2024, approves Romania's first National Strategy for Non-Energy Mineral Resources for the 2025-2035 period. The strategy is an 11-year programmatic public-policy framework spanning geological research, inventory and evaluation of critical + strategic raw materials, exploitation and advanced processing, environmental restoration of mining areas, superior valorisation of secondary resources from waste dumps and tailings ponds, geothermal water utilisation, and spa-tourism diversification. The strategy serves as Romania's domestic implementation framework under the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation 2024/1252) and is the parent authority under which Romania submitted the three CRMA Strategic-Project applications approved by the European Commission on 25 March 2025 (Euro Sun Mining gold/copper at Rovina, Salrom salt + lithium, Verde Magnesium magnesium recovery from tailings) totalling approximately €615m of investment.

Décret n° 2024/05251/PM, signed on 19 November 2024 by the Cameroonian Prime Minister, establishes the legal framework governing the possession, marketing, export, import, and transit of mineral substances in Cameroon. The decree operationalises the trade-flow control architecture introduced by the headline Loi n°2023/014 portant Code Minier (December 2023), giving effect to SONAMINES's statutory monopoly over the purchase and commercialisation of strategic minerals including gold, diamonds, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. It is one of eight implementing decrees signed 18–19 November 2024 that together constitute the full operational legal framework under the 2023 Code Minier.

On 14 November 2024 in Port Moresby, the Papua New Guinea Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (2025–2030) with the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources of the China Geological Survey (CGS), renewing a geoscience cooperation framework first established in a 2012 MoU. The agreement covers joint geochemical mapping, soil and rock sampling, remote-sensing surveys across PNG mineral provinces, and a capacity-building programme placing PNG geoscientists at Chinese universities for postgraduate degrees. At a time when the US, Australia and Japan are competing for upstream critical-minerals influence across the Pacific under the Quad and Lobito Corridor architectures, the MoU directs PNG's geological-survey knowledge production into Chinese state-affiliated channels, potentially biasing downstream mineral-rights allocation toward CGS-aligned exploration entities.

Tanzania's Parliament passed the Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 4) Act, 2024 (Bill No. 15 of 2024, published in the Special Gazette of the United Republic of Tanzania No. 34 Vol. 105 on 5 November 2024), which amends eight statutes including the Mining Act, Cap. 123. The mining-related provisions: (i) empower the Minister for Minerals, on recommendation from the Geological Survey of Tanzania (GST), to declare specific minerals as "critical" (essential to national economic, geopolitical, technology, or industrial use with limited or threatened supply) or "strategic" (mineral resources with diplomatic or defence importance) — the first Tanzanian statutory authority to do so; (ii) raise the minimum capital investment for a Mining Licence from USD 100,000 to USD 5,000,000 (a 50× hike pricing out junior explorers); (iii) authorise gemstone export following government-organised mineral auctions or international gem fairs while reaffirming the general beneficiation-in-Tanzania requirement on raw minerals and concentrates; (iv) require GST verification of mineral data on samples exported by mineral right holders; and (v) impose penalties for inaccurate or false mineral-data submissions. The Act establishes the gateway statutory authority for any future Tanzania critical- mineral export-control or stockpiling regime.

On 31 October 2024, the President of Uzbekistan signed Law No. LRU-987 "On Subsoil" (Zakon Respubliki Uzbekistan "O nedrakh"), a wholesale recodification of Uzbekistan's mining and subsoil regime that entered into force on 2 February 2025. The new statute expands from 51 articles in the prior version to 172 articles, comprehensively overhauling licensing, royalty, and foreign-investor terms for hard minerals (including rare earths, copper, uranium, gold, lithium) and hydrocarbons. Drafting was developed in collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), signalling strategic intent to attract Western mining capital and align UZ subsoil regime with international good practice ahead of the Almalyk/Navoi IPO track and downstream critical-minerals programmes.

President Daniel Noboa signed Executive Decree 435 on 23 October 2024, creating the Comité Nacional de Integridad del Sector Minero (CONIM) as a permanent inter-institutional coordination body chaired by the Secretaría General de Integridad Pública and composed of eight ministries plus SRI and UAFE, with a mandate to develop annual sector-risk assessments, formulate strategic action plans, and coordinate joint operations against illegal mining. The decree also orders ARCOM to update and reopen the Catastro Minero Nacional within six months (deadline 23 April 2025), the first cadastre reopening since the 2018 closure, sequentially executed as: small non-metallic mining (June 2025), metallic mining (September 2025), and all regimes (end 2025). This is the foundational executive instrument anchoring the post-2018 Ecuadorian mining-FDI revival pipeline and an IMF-EFF conditionality item for the 2026 reform cycle.

Bulgaria's Ministry of Economy and Industry, in partnership with the European Commission Structural Reform Support Directorate and contractor Ernst & Young Bulgaria, launched development of the National Industrial Strategy for Manufacturing and Mining Industry Sectors 2025-2030 on 10 October 2024. The strategy covers Bulgaria's two most carbon- and energy-intensive economic sectors — manufacturing and extractive industries — and integrates EU Critical Raw Materials Regulation, Net Zero Industry Act, and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism provisions into a national strategic framework. Expected adoption by end of 2026, it will be Bulgaria's first comprehensive post-EU-CRMA sectoral industrial-policy framework for mining and manufacturing, and closes a structural gap in the country's industrial policy architecture.

On 16 April 2025 (Beijing time), Zijin Mining Group completed a USD 1 billion, 100% acquisition of the Akyem open-pit gold mine in Ghana from Newmont Corporation, following an October 2024 purchase agreement. Akyem produced between 6.4 and 13.1 tonnes of gold per year over 2021–2024. The deal is Zijin's seventh gold-related overseas transaction since 2020, part of a stated strategy to exceed 100 t/yr of mined gold by 2028 and has moved Zijin from 13th to 6th place among global gold producers by output.

China's Ministry of Commerce and General Administration of Customs jointly issued Announcement No. 33 of 2024 on 15 August 2024, imposing an export licensing regime on antimony ore, antimony metal, antimony oxides (purity ≥99.99%), organic antimony compounds, antimony hydride, indium antimonide, and gold-antimony smelting technology, effective 15 September 2024. The announcement also covers six-sided top-press equipment used in superhard-materials (diamond, cubic boron nitride) production. China accounts for approximately 47% of global antimony mine output and an estimated 75-80% of refined antimony supply; in the months following implementation, Chinese antimony export volumes fell by approximately 97% and global antimony trioxide spot prices roughly doubled.

Decree 0977, signed 2 August 2024 by the Petro administration, regulates Article 231 of the National Development Plan (Law 2294/2023) by adding Chapter 12 to Title V, Part 2, Book 2 of Decreto 1073 de 2015, the consolidated mining-and-energy regulation. The decree creates a new state-managed territorial category — Distritos Mineros Especiales para la Diversificación Productiva — split into two tracks: "Distritos Mineros para la Vida y la Paz" (zones of high informal-mining presence, formalisation focus) and "Distritos Mineros para la Transición Energética Justa" (decarbonisation and productive-reconversion focus, principally coal phase-out zones). The decree restructures where, how, and under what licensing terms large-scale mining is permitted in Colombia, the world's #1 thermal coal exporter to Europe and a major LatAm producer of gold, copper and nickel.

Loi N°017-2024/ALT, adopted unanimously by Burkina Faso's Assemblée Législative de Transition on 18 July 2024 and promulgated by presidential decree in late August 2024, establishes a mandatory local-content regime for the entire mining sector. Mining operators must prioritise Burkinabè national labour, procure goods and services from national suppliers, and refine or add value to mineral production on national territory; foreign subcontractors must either incorporate a Burkinabè-law entity with capital shares reserved for national investors or form joint ventures with Burkinabè-majority-capital partners. The law is the companion local-content pillar to the simultaneously adopted Code Minier (Loi N°016-2024/ALT) and operationalises the national-participation and value-addition objectives of the Traoré junta's July 2024 dual mining-reform package.

Loi n°016-2024/ALT was unanimously adopted by Burkina Faso's Assemblée Législative de Transition on 18 July 2024 and promulgated on 31 July 2024 under the Traoré military-transition government. The 309-article statute replaces Loi n°036-2015/CNT (26 July 2015) and its amendment Loi n°012-2023/ALT (25 July 2023), and is the central legal vehicle for the junta's resource-nationalism agenda. Headline structural changes raise the state's free-carried interest in any new mining venture from 10% to 15% (Article 66) and grant an additional ~30% paid-participation right that may be exercised by the state or a state-mandated investor; mineral processing and sales — notably gold — now require prior administrative authorization; domestic-investor capital-opening, local content, and overproduction penalties are strengthened. Four implementing decrees (mining-title procedures, mining taxes/royalties, sector-approval conditions, capital opening to national investors) were under validation as of October 2024 and are required for full effect.

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye signed Décret n° 2024-1502 on 31 July 2024, suspending all artisanal and industrial mining operations and barring the issuance of new mining exploration and exploitation titles within a 500-metre corridor along the left bank of the Faleme River until 30 June 2027. The measure was adopted in Council of Ministers on 18 July 2024 following a ministerial mission to the zone in May 2024, and is motivated by severe environmental degradation, public-health risks from mercury and sediment contamination, and border-security concerns along the Senegal-Mali boundary in the OMVS basin.

Décret n°2024-0396/PT-RM of 9 July 2024 fixes the conditions and modalities for applying Loi n°2023-040 of 29 August 2023 (the new Code Minier of the Republic of Mali). The decree, adopted in Council of Ministers on 3 July 2024 and signed by the transition presidency, operationalises the 2023 statute that replaces the 2019 mining code (Loi n°2019-022). The new framework raises maximum cumulative state-plus-Malian-private participation in mining ventures to roughly 30–35% (10% free-carry to the state, plus an additional 20% paid participation right and 5% reserved to local private investors), reshapes the fiscal regime (royalties, taxes, exemptions) for new permits and conventions, and pairs with companion local-content Loi n°2023-041 of the same date. The 2024 implementing decree is the operative trigger date for downstream investor disputes (Barrick Loulo-Gounkoto suspension, B2Gold Fekola contract renegotiations, Allied Gold Sadiola, Ganfeng Goulamina lithium ramp).

The CTRI transitional government of Gabon signed Décret n° 0276/PR/MM on 2 July 2024, establishing a dedicated legal regime for six "sovereign substances" (gold, silver, uranium, diamonds, gemstones, and rare earths) and granting the state an automatic 35% equity participation — free of all charges and non-dilutable — in any large-scale mine exploiting those materials. The decree also reserves the state an option to acquire a further 25% paid interest at market value, gives it pre-emption rights on title transfers, mandates in-country processing of extracted substances, and reserves small-scale mining titles exclusively for Gabonese nationals. Existing operators had one year from publication (until approximately 15 July 2025) to restructure their capital in compliance; the state vehicle channelling the free-carry stake is Équatoriale des Mines.

On 29 June 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted Council Regulation (EU) 2024/1865 and Council Decision (CFSP) 2024/1864, amending Regulation (EC) No 765/2006 to extend Belarus's sanctions regime so that it mirrors the restrictive measures already in force against Russia, closing routes used to circumvent the Russia sanctions via Belarus. The package bans the import of gold, diamonds, helium, coal and other mineral products (including crude oil) originating in or exported from Belarus; bans the import of goods and technology on the EU Common Military List if of Belarusian origin; extends the export ban on dual-use goods, oil-refining and LNG-liquefaction equipment, maritime-navigation goods and luxury goods to Belarus; prohibits transit via Belarus of EU-exported firearms and ammunition; and broadens the road-transport ban. The measures entered into force on 1 July 2024, the day after publication in the Official Journal.

On 27 June 2024 the Argentine Congress passed Law 27.742, the "Ley de Bases y Puntos de Partida para la Libertad de los Argentinos" ("Ley Bases"), the flagship economic reform of the Milei administration. The law was published in the Boletín Oficial on 8 July 2024 and Title VII established the Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones (RIGI) — a promotional regime designed to attract large-scale capex into mining, energy, oil & gas, LNG, steel, forestry, tourism, infrastructure, and technology. Implementing Decree 749/2024 was issued on 23 August 2024 and the regime became fully operational with Resolution 1074/2024 on 22 October 2024. RIGI offers single-project vehicles ("VPUs") that commit at least USD 200M (with sector-specific thresholds rising to USD 600M and up to USD 2B for long-term "strategic export" projects) a 30-year regulatory, tax, customs and foreign-exchange stability guarantee. Headline benefits include a reduced 25% corporate income tax (vs. 35% standard), accelerated depreciation, full deductibility of inflation adjustments, an import-duty exemption on capital goods and inputs, a phased relaxation of central-bank obligations to repatriate and convert export proceeds (20% free after year one, 40% after year two, 100% after year three), and reduced dividend withholding tax. Disputes are subject to international arbitration under ICSID or UNCITRAL rules. As of mid-2025, RIGI's project pipeline reached USD 33.9B in submitted applications, of which roughly USD 15.7B (46.5%) had been approved across nine projects spanning steel (Sidersa), energy/LNG (PAE Southern Energy, YPF Argentina LNG), three mining projects, and infrastructure. The flagship approval was Rio Tinto's USD 2.5B Rincón battery-grade lithium carbonate plant in Salta (initial 53,000 t/yr, scaling to 60,000 t/yr by 2028) — the first mining project approved under the regime, on 21 May 2025. Strategically, RIGI is Argentina's bid to compete with Chile's lithium framework and Brazil's industrial policies for upstream-critical-minerals capex. Combined with the lifting of Argentina's FX controls (cepo cambiario) in April 2025 it sharply re-rates the country's project-economics math for multinationals — particularly in the Lithium Triangle, the Vaca Muerta shale, and pipeline/LNG infrastructure. Whether the 30-year stability guarantee survives a future change of government is the dominant political-risk overhang on the regime.

Rwanda's Parliament enacted Law n° 056/2024 of 26 June 2024 establishing a new tax on minerals, published in the Official Gazette special issue of 5 July 2024 and replacing the 2013 minerals-tax law that had used a three-category framework with a top rate of 6%. The 2024 statute restructures the mineral-tax regime into six categories (base metals, gemstones, platinum group metals, rare earth elements, energy minerals, gold) and applies differential rates between domestically processed minerals (royalty tax: 0.5%–3%) and raw-mineral exports (export tax: 0.5%–3%), explicitly favouring value-added processing. Notably the gold royalty falls from 6% to 0.5% and base-metal royalty from 4% to 3%. The law operates under separate tax-policy authority from the companion Mining Law n° 072/2024 enacted the same day and is the principal fiscal instrument underpinning Rwanda's 3T (tin/tantalum/tungsten) processing-hub strategy and broader value-addition agenda under the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1).

Rwanda's Parliament enacted Law n° 072/2024 of 26 June 2024 governing mining and quarry operations, published in the Official Gazette Special edition of 24 July 2024 and repealing the 2018 Mining Law. The statute restructures the licensing regime, empowers the competent organ to designate strategic minerals over which the State holds exclusive rights in the public interest, tightens land-acquisition rules (compensated land transfers to State ownership), and significantly raises penalties — illegal mining now carries up to 5 years' imprisonment and RWF 80m fines, illegal mineral trading up to 10 years and RWF 150m. The law underpins Rwanda's positioning as Africa's principal 3T (tin/tantalum/tungsten) processing hub handling Rwandan and cross-border concentrates.

The Kyrgyz Republic's parliament adopted on 13 June 2024 — and President Sadyr Japarov signed into law on 27 June 2024 — amendments to the Law "On Subsoil" (No. 49 of 19 May 2018) that lift the constitutional-status prohibition on geological exploration, prospecting, and development of uranium and thorium deposits enacted in 2019 under President Jeenbekov. The law simultaneously invalidates the standalone 2019 prohibition statute and introduces a voluntary state-equity transfer mechanism allowing mining-rights holders to transfer company shares to the state for strategically important gold and coal deposits. Together with the January 2024 Presidential Decree No. 5 (Polymetals and REE National Project), the amendment forms the second pillar of President Japarov's mining reset, re-opening the Kyzyl-Ompol uranium-REE-ilmenite deposit in Issyk-Kul oblast (est. 2,000+ tU resource + significant Th₂O₃, REE, and ilmenite by-products) to Western and Asian operators for the first time since 2019.

The Central African Republic enacted a comprehensive new Mining Code (Law No. 24-008) in May 2024, replacing the prior framework to govern all prospecting, exploration, exploitation, processing, and marketing of mineral deposits. The code creates two state enterprises: GEMINCA (Gemmes et Minéraux de Centrafrique), mandated as the state-designated purchaser of precious and semi-precious minerals — introducing a state monopsony channel for diamond and gold purchasing — and SONADERM (Société Nationale de Développement des Ressources Minérales), charged with geological survey and mineral-domain promotion. Mandatory EITI, Kimberley Process, and ICGLR compliance is imposed on all mining title holders, forecloses informal-sector operators, and tightens supply-chain due-diligence requirements for downstream importers. A companion formalisation framework licences artisanal and small-scale mining through cooperatives and purchasing-office structures, and a dedicated mining fund distinct from Treasury accounts is established to channel sector revenues.

Uganda's Statutory Instrument No. 30 of 2024, gazetted and effective 24 May 2024, prohibits the export of unrefined gold and mandates a minimum purity threshold of 99.9% for all gold export consignments. Exporters must demonstrate compliance via a purity certificate and proof of payment of an export levy of US$200 per kilogram of refined gold. The instrument replaces a previous statutory instrument of the same name that had expired on 30 June 2023, re-enacting and reinforcing the in-country value-addition mandate for Uganda's gold sector.

On 21 February 2024, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed Presidential Decree DP-37 approving the 2024 State Program for the Implementation of the "Uzbekistan-2030" Strategy under the slogan "Year of Support for Youth and Business". The decree converts the parent Uzbekistan-2030 doctrine (DP-158 of 11 September 2023) into binding annual execution targets covering SOE privatisation and IPO programmes (Navoi MMC, Almalyk MMC, Uzbekistan National Investment Fund), industrial localisation, sectoral investment lines, "green economy" and water-management benchmarks, and youth-business support measures. DP-37 functions as the master annual operationalisation instrument for Uzbekistan's 2024 industrial and investment policy stack, anchoring the downstream subsoil recodification (LRU-987, Oct 2024) and critical-minerals national programme (March 2025).

A joint advisory issued January 26, 2024 by six US agencies (USTR, State, Treasury, Commerce, DHS, and Labor) updating businesses on supply-chain risks associated with Burma's post-coup military regime (SAC). The advisory warns of reputational, economic, and legal exposure for entities operating in or sourcing from Burma and specifically flags heightened due-diligence requirements for metal importers, the SAC's opaque network of corporate affiliates in Thailand, Singapore, India, and the UAE that complicate traceability, and cross-border reporting gaps for goods and funds transfers. Targeted sectors include rare earths (dysprosium, terbium), base metals and gold mining, timber, aviation services and jet fuel, computer chips and ICT equipment, and small arms components.

President Paul Biya signed Loi n°2023/014 on 19 December 2023, replacing the 2016 mining code (Loi n°2016/017) and significantly enlarging state control over Cameroon's mineral sector. The law vests SONAMINES (Société Nationale des Mines) with an exclusive statutory monopoly over the purchase and commercialisation of gold and diamonds nationwide, mandates a 10% non-dilutable free-carry equity stake for the state in all mining enterprises, and introduces a production-sharing mechanism (1–5% of finished product for precious substances; 2–15% of raw ore for others) layered on top of revised ad valorem royalties (5% for precious metals, 3% for base metals, 10% for radioactive substances). The code provides the legal framework for SONAMINES-led reindustrialisation of large iron-ore and bauxite projects, including Mbalam-Nabeba and Minim-Martap.

Colombia's National Mining Agency (ANM) issued Resolution 1006 of November 30, 2023, formally designating 17 mineral groups as "strategic" for the country under the authority of Law 1753/2015 Article 20. The designated list — Cu, Ni, Zn, platinum group elements, Fe, Mn, metallurgical coal, phosphates, Mg, Al, Au, emeralds, construction materials, silica sands, limestone, gypsum, and Cr — enables ANM to declare Strategic Mining Reserve Areas (AME) and organise special licensing rounds under preferential procedures. The resolution reframes Colombia's mineral priorities around energy transition, food security, reindustrialisation, and public infrastructure rather than the prior coal/precious-metals export emphasis.

The Mining (New Porgera) (Amendment) Act 2023 (Act No. 16 of 2023), passed by Papua New Guinea's National Parliament on 29 November 2023 and certified 30 November 2023, created the statutory framework enabling the Porgera gold mine to reopen under the New Porgera Ltd joint venture — with PNG state and local stakeholders holding 51% and Barrick Gold 49%. The Act formalised four agreements signed on 13 October 2023 (Mining Development Contract, Special Mining Lease 13, Fiscal Stability Agreement, and Landowner Compensation Escrow), allowing the mine to resume operations on 22 December 2023 after a 2020 closure when the Marape government refused to renew Barrick Niugini Limited's prior special mining lease. This 51% state-and-community majority template now governs the legal architecture for all future PNG resource concessions.

Loi n° 2023-040 of 29 August 2023, adopted by the Conseil National de Transition (CNT) and promulgated by the Président de la Transition Colonel Assimi Goïta, repeals and replaces the prior Mali Code Minier (Ordonnance n° 2019-022/P-RM du 27 septembre 2019) and constitutes the foundational mining statute for all mineral-title issuance, foreign-investment participation, fiscal architecture, and state-control mechanisms in the Republic of Mali. Key structural innovations include a 35% Malian-side equity floor (10% free-carry to the state + 20% paid- participation option + 5% reserved to local Malian private investors), a special permitting regime for substances minérales d'intérêt stratégique (lithium, uranium, thorium, tungsten, tantalite, cobalt, and rare-earth elements), and zones d'intérêt stratégique reserved for the state and state-controlled vehicles. The Code is the parent statute under which Décret n° 2024-0396/PT-RM (the 2024 implementing decree) and Loi n° 2023-041 (the companion local-content law) operate, and under which the Barrick Loulo-Gounkoto standoff, B2Gold Fekola renegotiation, Allied Gold Sadiola settlement, and Ganfeng Goulamina fiscal escalation are situated.

Loi n° 2023-041 of 29 August 2023 establishes Mali's mandatory local-content framework for the mining sector, requiring titulaires de permis miniers and their sub-contractors to prioritise Malian nationals, local communities, national enterprises, and locally produced goods and services in the procurement and execution of all mining activities. The law mandates three-year renewable procurement plans with cascading preference from Malian citizens to ECOWAS citizens to others, and imposes capacity-building, training, and technology-transfer obligations on licence-holders. It is the procurement-side companion statute to the simultaneously adopted Code Minier (Loi 2023-040), operating under its own implementing decree Décret 2024-0397/PT-RM (July 2024).

Decree-Law No. 104 of 10 August 2023 ("Decreto Asset" / Omnibus Decree, GU n.186 of 10 Aug 2023, in force 11 Aug 2023) was converted with amendments into Law No. 136 of 9 October 2023 (GU n.236 of 9 Oct 2023). The conversion law materially expanded Italy's "Golden Power" foreign-direct-investment screening regime (DL 21/2012). Two key extensions: (i) intra-group transactions involving entities outside the EU are no longer exempt from the exercise of special powers — only the prior notification carve-out was preserved; (ii) acts, resolutions and operations concerning intellectual-property rights in artificial intelligence, semiconductor production, cybersecurity, aerospace, energy storage, quantum and nuclear technologies, and food production technologies fall within scope when one or more counter-parties sit outside the EU. The Prime Minister also obtained an explicit veto power over transactions creating "exceptional situations" not already covered by sectoral or EU prudential / merger rules, including those touching qualifying holdings in the financial sector.

Burundi's Assemblée Nationale promulgated Loi n°1/19 of 4 August 2023, amending the 2013 Mining Code (Loi n°1/21 of 15 October 2013). The law introduces mandatory 16% no-cost state equity participation in all large-mine joint ventures — rising by 5% at each permit renewal — caps individual operators to two permits per mineral substance, and imposes a 0.5% of turnover municipal development levy. Implementing decrees and orders followed: Décret n°100/224 of 23 November 2023 (artisanal/small-scale licensing), and Joint Ministerial Order n°760/540/1443 of 11 December 2023 (fiscal regime). Burundi holds East Africa's second-largest coltan reserves and significant cassiterite, gold, REE, nickel, and phosphate deposits, making this reform structurally significant for regional critical-mineral supply chains.

On 25 July 2023 Egypt published Law No. 160 of 2023 in the Official Gazette, amending Investment Law No. 72 of 2017 to expand and modernise the country's foreign-direct-investment incentive architecture. The law universalises General Incentives (stamp-duty exemptions, land-registration-fee relief, reduced customs duties on capital goods) to all investment projects regardless of establishment date, broadens the Golden License single-permit regime to strategic/national projects and PPP infrastructure, and unlocks the Free Zones system for previously excluded energy-intensive sectors — petroleum manufacturing, fertilizers, iron and steel, LNG liquefaction and transportation — subject to Supreme Council of Energy approval. A Special Incentive of 33–55% tax credit on income from qualifying new industrial investment projects was introduced; the Special Incentives establishment window was subsequently extended three years to October 2026 by Cabinet Decree No. 1203 of 2024. As of December 2025 GAFI had approved 44 Golden Licenses under this architecture.

On 17 June 2023, the Prime Minister's Office issued a formal notification establishing the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), an apex civil-military body chaired by the Prime Minister with the Chief of Army Staff and federal/ provincial leadership as members. SIFC operates as a "single window" to fast-track foreign direct investment in five strategic sectors: Defence Production, Agriculture and Livestock, Minerals, IT and Telecommunication, and Energy. The council is the principal vehicle through which Pakistan is channelling Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sovereign capital — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain — into headline projects including the Reko Diq copper-gold restart, Saudi/UAE minerals MoUs, and the 2025 Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum. SIFC received statutory backing on 18 August 2023 via the Board of Investment (Amendment) Act, 2023, which inserted Chapter II-A giving SIFC overriding authority over other laws.

On 16 June 2023, the Council of Ministers of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) adopted Règlement N°02/2023/CM/UEMOA establishing a Community Mining Code, the first regional harmonisation of mining law across the 8-nation bloc in over 20 years (repealing Règlement N°18/2003/CM/UEMOA). The code harmonises licensing tracks (reconnaissance → exploration → mining), royalty and tax standards, rehabilitation and closure fund obligations, and community-contribution requirements across Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Member states are required to transpose the code into national law within a prescribed conformity period; the Commission has developed three draft implementing regulations covering permit management, rehabilitation fund procedures, and applicable rights/royalties/taxes.