Mining Codes And Agreements: The Impact On Financing The Sector

Article was first published in French in Revue Banque n°815-816, January 2018. French Article: Codes conventions miniers en afrique francophone

Although mining codes and the agreements between the host country and the extractive project operator that complement them do not contain provisions concerning the financial package for projects, they do include clauses that affect the financiers and their intervention capacity.

As soon as they became independent, French-speaking African states with natural resources passed foreign investment laws and drew up legislation specific to the extraction sectors – the mining and oil sectors codes - which have been regularly modified or reformed¹. The specifics of each extractive project require these codes to be supplemented by agreements, signed between the host country and the extractive project operator, in which the parties' respective rights and obligations are laid down. The purpose of these agreements is to reconcile the