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MINING

ISSUES

Senegal, like most countries with mineral resources, aims to make with mining sector one of the pillars of the country’s sustainable development. In this context, the Emerging Senegal Plan (PES), adopted in February 2014 and which is a reference of all Senegal’s economic and social policies over the medium and long term, has selected the Mining sector among the six (6) priority growth sectors, Employment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Senegal intends to exploit its mining potential and ensure emergence of industries structured around these
resources. The Government’s option in this area is to promote a better sharing of wealth through involvement
of the national private sector in the exploitation, and establishment of contracts and a regulatory framework that
preserve the interests of the Government. To this end, Senegal has already applied for the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI).

As a result, the following projects in the mining sector were selected from among the 27 flagship PES projects:

  • Development of the phosphate sector;
  • Fertilizers to bring Senegal to the top 3 phosphate producers by 2023;
  • Accelerated zircon mining ;
  • Accelerate gold sector operations ;
  • Relaunch of the integrated iron project;
  • Supervision and promotion of artisanal mines;
  • Establishing Senegal as a regional mining hub.

It was therefore necessary to revise the broad guidelines set out in the Mining Policy Statement of March 6th,2003, in order to adapt them to the macroeconomic framework now in force; This led to the adoption of the sectoral policy letter on the mining sector as a strategic planning tool for the objectives and strategic axes and actions to be implemented over the period 2017-2023.

Senegal has a rich and varied mineral potential. The subsoil is first known for its important phosphate and limestone resources of the Senegalese-Mauritanian sedimentary basin in operation. This basin in its coastal fringe is also rich in heavy mineral sands such as zircon and titanium. The ancient geological formations of Senegal Oriental (Birimien Socle) and the series representing the Mauritanian chain constitute an important potential for mineralization that is still poorly recognized. They are known for their richness in precious metals, in particular gold, and base metals such as iron, copper and zinc. These formations also contain a wide variety of good quality ornamental stones (marbles, granites, serpentinites), building materials (basalt, sandstone, shells, flint, sand, clay) and other mineral substances such as manganese, tin, uranium, etc.

LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

The Senegalese mining sector is governed among other texts by law no. 2016-32 of November 08, 2016 on the Senegal Mining Code and its implementing decree no. 2017-459 of April 21, 2017, as well as the decree establishing and laying down the modalities for feeding and operating the fund for the rehabilitation of mining sites (Decree no. 2009-1335 of November 30, 2009)

Mining agreements signed before the entry into force of 2016 Code remain for the most part subject to 2003 Mining Code (Law no. 2003-36 of November 24, 2003 on mining code (applicable to mining agreements signed before March 20, 2017).

The Mining Code constitutes the legal framework for intervention in the mining field. It sets out various types of mineral titles and defines the conditions for obtaining them, the rights conferred and the characteristics of each type of mineral and quarry title.

The Mining Code is supplemented by a standard mining convention provided by article 42 of the aforementioned implementing decree, the model of which is published on the website of Direction of Mines and Geology. The Mining Convention lays down, among other things, the general conditions for research, exploitation, transport and marketing, the arrangements for legal persons created, with the participation of the Government including a free participation of 10%, the legal conditions, tax, customs, economic, financial, land and administrative aspects of research and exploitation activities and provisions relating to the transfer of invested capital, proceeds, dividends and interest on loans contracted.

In addition to the Mining Code, other legislative texts govern the mining sector including the Community Mining Code (Regulation no. 18/2003/CM/UEMOA of December 23, 2003 on the Community Mining Code), the General Tax Code notably with Law no. 2018-10 of March 30, 2018 amending various legislative provisions relating to tax systems, the Customs Code (Act no. 2014-10 of February 28, 2014 on the SENEGAL Customs Code) and the Investment Code (Law no. 2001 – 01 of January 15, 2001 on the Environment code).

MAJOR PLAYERS

Many actors are involved in the development of the mining sector in Senegal:

INSTITUTIONAL ACTORS

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC

He is responsible for:

  • Granting, renewal, renunciation and withdrawal of mining licences and mining
    concessions on the basis of a report from the Ministry of Mines (by order);
  • Approval of applications for the conversion of mining licences (by Order in Council)

MINING AND GEOLOGY MINISTRY
 

He is responsible for:

  • Suspension of activities in the event of a regulatory violation (by order);
  • Approval of organizational or other technical changes affecting the conduct of work on mining projects;
  • Approval of the admissibility of applications for research and development permits and mineral claims (by letter);
  • Approval of the admissibility of applications for research and development permits and mineral claims (by letter);
  • Granting, renewing, withdrawing and waiving research permits (by order)(par arrêt)
  • Definition of areas or activities for small-scale mining and artisanal mining may be permitted (by order);
  • Granting, renewing and withdrawing authorizations for small and artisanal mining (by order)
  • Granting and withdrawal of authorisations for the opening and exploitation of private or public quarries (by order)

MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND BUDGET (MFB)

Entity responsible for:

  • Approve the mining Convention by giving its assent to tax, customs and economic provisions.
  • Apposer le visa en exonération Affix the visa as an exemption which is intended to obtain from General
    Directorate of Taxes and Domains the authorization to be established by its supplier an invoice as a VAT exemption.

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (MEDD)

Entity responsible for:

  • Issuing operating authorizations for first-class facilities (facilities that present serious hazards or disadvantages to the interests referred to in Article L 9 of the Investment Code)
  • Issuing receipts for declarations of installations placed in the second class (installations which, not having serious inconvenience for the interests referred to in Article L 9 of the Investment Code)
  • Preparing emergency plans to deal with critical situations generating serious environmental pollution in collaboration with relevant government departments and other public and/or private structures.

MINISTRY OF LABOR AND SOCIAL SECURITY

Entity responsible for:

  • Verifying the conformity of information in relation to social legislation (contracts, worker movement declarations, opening or closing of establishments, annual declarations of the labor situation);
  • Ensuring health and safety control

MINISTRY OF INTERIOR

Entity responsible for:

  • Ensuring domestic security throughout the national territory
  • Being responsible for territorial administration. In this capacity, it has authority over Governors, Prefects, and Sub-Prefects

TERRITORIAL COLLECTIVITIES

  • Providing opinions to the Ministry responsible for Mines regarding the authorization of artisanal mining operations.
  • The holder of this authorization pays a fixed fee to the concerned territorial collectivities, the amount of which is set at 50,000 FCFA
  • They allocate land through deliberations to mining companies in the areas concerned.

MINING COMPANIES

These include:

SOCOCIM INDUSTRIES

ICS

GRANDE CÔTE OPERATIONS SA

DANGOTE SENEGAL

MIFERSO

COMPAGNIE SAHELIENNE D’ENTREPRISE  GRANULATS

SABADOLA GOLD OPERATIONS SA (SGO)

LA SOCIETE CIVILE

THE CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVE FOR TRANSPARENCY IN EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES (ITIE) 

International standard for publishing mining and petroleum revenues established in 2002 at the instigation of British Prime Minister TONY BLAIR and aimed at promoting transparency in the extractive sector. In Senegal, the implementation of this standard is ensured by a committee called the National ITIE Committee (CN-ITIE), which was created through Decree 2013-881 of June 20, 2013.

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