The country’s military government said Thursday it had canceled the three gold mining companies’ concessions and denied a licence extension to a British oil company, accusing them of failing to respect their obligations.
The move is seen as part of a broader policy to assert greater state control over strategic resources following the 2023 military coup.
The west African country, a uranium, gold and oil producer, has been ruled since a 2023 coup by a military government that has asserted its sovereignty over natural resources.
The government said in a statement it had cancelled concessions awarded between 2017 and 2020 to three gold mining and processing companies: Comini, Afrior and Ecomine.
The government justifies its actions by claiming that past deals allowed foreign firms to profit with minimal benefits to local communities and the national budget.
The three “have not honoured” their commitments, notably to pay taxes, provide an annual technical and financial report and respect environmental regulations, it said.
Niger has just one active industrial gold mine, Samira, which the administration nationalised last year.
The government also said it had also rejected a request to grant an extension on an exploration and drilling licence for British firm Savannah Energy in the country’s southeast.
It said the company had failed to respect an output-sharing contract covering four oil blocks.
According to Savannah, the blocks cover about half the Agadem Rift Basin, Niger’s main oil-producing region.
The company says it had recently made a major oil find there.
Across the Sahel, governments have increasingly argued that decades of foreign-led extraction have produced limited developmental gains. Military governments in the region have therefore pushed to renegotiate contracts, increase state ownership in mining ventures, and tighten regulatory oversight.
However, the growing push toward nationalisation and stronger state control has also generated tension with international partners.
Recently, the United States asked Ghana to stop aspects of its resource nationalisation policy.
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