Niger’s Minister of Mines has detailed on RTN the extent of the country’s mineral resources and the sector’s performance in 2025, affirming the authorities’ commitment to making this potential a driver of national wealth.
Commissioner-Colonel Abarchi Ousmane, Niger’s Minister of Mines, told the Niger Radio and Television (RTN) in an interview the country’s subsoil is a “geological marvel” that the authorities intend to transform into national wealth.
Delivering a detailed overview of Niger’s mining potential and the results projected for 2025, the Minister distinguished two main categories of geological formations. The basement formations – the Djado Massif, the Air Massif, Damagaram-Mounio, South Maradi, and Niger’s Liptako – contain gold, copper, iron, and molybdenum, while the sedimentary basins – Iullemeden, Tenere, and Tim Mersoi – contain uranium, coal, limestone and gypsum.
Uranium, a “strategic substance sought after by the world’s major powers to produce low-cost energy,” remains Niger’s emblematic resource. Known reserves, he noted are estimated at between 350,000 and 500,000 tonnes of uranium metal, distributed among the SOMAIR deposits (over 100,000 tonnes), the SOMIDA deposits (approximately 30,000 tonnes, mine under construction), the Imouraren deposits (over 230,000 tonnes), and the Madaouéla deposits (approximately 20,000 tonnes).
COMIREX, a recently established company, is also responsible for exploiting the Mouradi deposits in the Arlit department.
For gold, the Liptako Mining Company (SML), whose Samira mine has estimated reserves of 2.5 tonnes and resources of approximately 25 tonnes, handles current industrial production. A second mine is under construction in Banjo, in the Tera department, operated by the Niger
Turkey Mining Company (NTMC), a joint venture between the State of Niger and the Turkish state-owned company MTAIC, on a deposit with estimated reserves of 2 tonnes and resources of approximately 20 tonnes.
Coal is mined by SONICHAR in the Agadez region, with approximately 15 million tonnes currently being extracted to supply electricity to the city of Agadez and local mining industries. Significant additional reserves – estimated at over 200 million tonnes – exist in the Tahoua region, at Takanamat, where a mining permit has been granted to a company established in partnership with the Wanda Group, covering 150 million tonnes.
Among the resources that are little or not yet exploited, the minister cited iron, whose reserves reach more than one billion tonnes in the Kolo-Sai area and approximately 8 billion tons in the Termit massif, near Gadein – figures which, according to him, put Niger in a position to undertake a project comparable to Guinea’s Simandou.
He also mentioned phosphate (more than one billion tonnes in W National Park, 7.3 million tonnes in the Tahoua region, in the Anakar and Gaweye areas) and lithium, estimated at 300,000-350,000 tonnes in the Tera department near Diblo, as well as in the Air and Damagaram regions.
Financially, the mining sector generated over 18 billion CFA francs in revenue collected by the Ministry and paid into the National Treasury in 2025, compared to 6.2 billion in 2024. An additional 1.5 billion CFA francs was referred to the Commission for Combating Financial Crime (COLDEF) for enforcement proceedings, in four batches of cases.
Meanwhile, mining exploration investments reached over 14 billion CFA francs in 2025, compared to 2.6 billion the previous year.
The minister also revealed that approximately 1,800 tons of uranium contained in uranate are currently available in Niger, with an estimated value of around $380 million. Regarding gold, production declared to the ministry in 2025 amounted to over 1.7 tonnes, valued at over 109 billion CFA francs.
In addition, over 200 kg of gold were handed over to the State by gold mining companies (value: over 12 billion CFA francs), and over 65 kg were seized by the defense and security forces and transferred to the Treasury, valued at approximately 4 billion CFA francs.
The minister announced the creation in 2025 of four new entities:
COMIREX (uranium, Moradi deposits in the Arlit department, benefiting from 15 billion CFA francs in funding from the BOAD), COMINAIR (copper mining in Ounwajo in the Aïr region, a first for this substance in Niger), NTMC for gold in Banjo in the Tera department, and Royal Gold Niger (RGN), authorized to refine gold, transform it into jewelry, and cut precious stones.
These entities have generated hundreds of formal jobs, in addition to thousands of informal jobs linked to gold panning companies, particularly visible in the Agadez region and the Tchibarakaten area.
Social investments also accompany mining and research activities: construction of classrooms, health centers and boreholes in all the regions concerned.
AC/Sf/fss/gik/APA