{"id":5184,"date":"2025-08-15T12:35:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/?p=5184"},"modified":"2025-08-15T12:35:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:35:51","slug":"5184","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/2025\/08\/15\/5184\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger Announces Nationalization of Its Gold Mining Company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumbs_b_c_7480a7b23af51fda6e1d0da91690340f.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/thumbs_b_c_7480a7b23af51fda6e1d0da91690340f.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Via: AA<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNigerien authorities announced on Friday the nationalization of the Liptako Mining Company (SML), responsible for gold mining and 80% owned by the Australian group Mckinel Resources Limited.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSML SA, under Nigerien law, holds two (2) licenses for large-scale gold mining, namely the Samira Libiri license, renewed by decree on November 20, 2019, for a period of five years, and the Bouloujounga license,\u201d the same source added, specifying that in May 2019, \u201cthe Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 de patrimoine des mines du Niger (SOPAMIN), a state-owned company, sold 80% of its shares in Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des mines du Liptako (SML) SA to the Mckinel Resources Limited group through a share transfer agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the Nigerien government, the Mckinel Resources Limited group had then \u201ccommitted to rehabilitating SML SA by mobilizing significant financial resources and honoring various operational, financial, and social commitments.\u201d Unfortunately, Nigerien authorities lamented that \u201csix (6) years after this share transfer, serious breaches of contractual obligations by Mckinel Resources Limited have been recorded, along with an alarming economic situation for SML SA.\u201d Among other shortcomings, Niamey noted that a comprehensive investment plan, \u201cincluding an indicative investment plan of at least US$10 million, which was to be developed within three (3) months of the acquisition, was never provided\u201d by the Mckinel group, and that \u201cSML SA has several outstanding tax debts to the State of Niger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SML SA is Niger\u2019s main gold mining company, operating in the Liptako-Gourma region, near the border with Burkina Faso. Last June, Niger announced the nationalization of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Mines de l\u2019A\u00efr (SOMA\u00cfR), responsible for uranium mining and 63.40% owned by the French operator Orano.<\/p>\n<p>Since the July 2023 coup, the new Nigerien authorities have announced their intention to restore Niger\u2019s \u201cfull\u201d sovereignty over its natural resources.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com.tr\/fr\/afrique\/le-niger-annonce-la-nationalisation-de-sa-soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9-dexploitation-de-lor\/3655974\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Via: AA \u201cNigerien authorities announced on Friday the nationalization of the Liptako Mining Company (SML), responsible for gold mining and 80% owned by the Australian group Mckinel Resources Limited. \u201cSML &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/2025\/08\/15\/5184\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Niger Announces Nationalization of Its Gold Mining Company<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.10.7","language":"en","enabled_languages":["br","en"],"languages":{"br":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5188,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5184\/revisions\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ufrgs.br\/cebrafrica\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}