Impact of Sahel Conflicts on the Mining Industry

Background: conflict and instability in the Sahel

The Sahel region — stretching across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — has experienced coups, weak governance and rapidly growing jihadist insurgencies. The region’s core security problem lies in the Liptako-Gourma area where extremist groups linked to al-Qaeda (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahel (ISGS) operate across porous borders. Terrorism has escalated dramatically; over 11,600 deaths were attributed to terrorism in 2023, and the Sahel accounted for more than half of global terrorism deaths in 2024. Military governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger turned away from Western security partners and invited the Russian Africa Corps (formerly Wagner), which has been implicated in civilian massacres. Recurrent coups (2021–2023) led to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which is less cooperative with regional bodies and the West, further complicating cross-border security.

Besides violence, illicit economies feed the conflict. A 2025 report on trafficking networks notes that gold smuggling and natural-resource exploitation are the main sources of income for armed groups; artisanal sites such as Boungou and Nampala generate millions of dollars in unregulated gold, sold through informal hubs in Togo, Ghana and Dubai. Criminal networks tax cattle rustling, arms transit and kidnappings, turning the Sahel’s war economy into a semi-regulated system that supplants state authority. Illicit financing sustains insurgencies, undermines legal supply chains and exposes mining companies to kidnapping, extortion and smuggling risks.

Importance of mining in the Sahel economies

Mining is one of the few formal sectors in these land-locked economies. In Burkina Faso and Mali, gold dominates exports; in Niger, uranium was historically the largest foreign-exchange earner. Mining contributes 10–15 % of GDP across these countries, provides revenue for governments and supports thousands of artisanal miners. The sector also attracts international investors because the region hosts several critical minerals:

• Gold — the Sahel has become Africa’s third-largest gold province. Mali is the continent’s fourth-largest producer, and Burkina Faso surpassed 90 t in 2025. Niger has modest gold output.
• Uranium — Niger holds about 454,000 t of uranium reserves, representing ≈5 % of world supply. The country’s single industrial mine (Somaïr) accounted for 15–20 % of national exports before operations stopped in 2024.
• Lithium — Mali’s Goulamina deposit is among the world’s largest hard-rock projects, with 890,000 t of lithium reserves. It is expected to make Mali Africa’s second-largest lithium producer by 2026.
• Manganese and other base metals — Burkina Faso’s Tambao deposit contains a large manganese resource; base-metal exploration is ongoing but remains small compared with gold and uranium.

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