Niger terminates the activities of three mining companies and a British oil company.
The ruling junta in Niger announced on Thursday that it had cancelled the concessions of three gold mining companies and refused to extend the license of a British oil company, accusing them of not having respected their obligations.
Authorities said these three companies "failed to honor" their commitments, particularly regarding tax payments, providing an annual technical and financial report and complying with environmental regulations.
The government said it had also rejected a request to extend an exploration and drilling license for the British company Savannah Energy in the southeast of the country.
He stated that the company had breached a production-sharing agreement covering four oil blocks. According to Savannah, these blocks cover approximately half of the Agadem Rift Basin, Niger's main oil-producing region. The company claims to have recently made a significant oil discovery in this area.
Nigerien authorities also indicated in a statement that they had cancelled the concessions granted between 2017 and 2020 to three gold mining and processing companies: Comini, Afrior and Ecomine.
A producer of uranium, gold and oil, Niger has been ruled since the 2023 coup by a military government that has asserted its sovereignty over natural resources.
This West African country has only one operating industrial gold mine, Samira, which the junta nationalized last year.
