Eramet and Gabon agree roadmap to process manganese ore at home
MoU targets local processing of up to 700,000 tonnes a year by the end of 2031
Eramet and its Gabonese subsidiary Comilog have signed a structured memorandum of understanding with the government of Gabon, setting out an industrial roadmap to build local manganese processing capacity in the country. The agreement was signed in Paris in July 2026 in the presence of Gabon's president and the president of France.
The roadmap envisages processing of up to 700,000 tonnes a year of manganese ore inside Gabon by the end of 2031, a significant step for a country that currently exports the vast majority of its output as raw ore from the Moanda mining complex operated by Comilog, which produced approximately 7 million tonnes of ore in 2025.
A first plant by 2028
Under one scenario outlined in the agreement, Eramet and the Gabonese state would build a manganese oxide plant in the Libreville region with an initial capacity of around 10,000 tonnes a year, consuming roughly 20,000 tonnes of ore annually to supply the battery and steel sectors. That first facility could begin production as early as 2028, well ahead of the 2031 target for the fuller 700,000-tonne roadmap.
Racing an export deadline
The MoU comes as Gabon presses ahead with a policy directive requiring all raw manganese exports to be phased out by 2029, forcing every miner in the country to submit implementation timelines showing measurable progress toward domestic processing or risk losing their licences. Gabon is the world's second-largest manganese producer, having exported 9.4 million tonnes in 2024, mostly in unprocessed form, making the shift to local beneficiation a major structural change for the sector.
The agreement follows Gabon's move in May 2026 to signal its intention to acquire an equity stake in Eramet itself, discussed at the Africa Forward summit in Nairobi, with Eramet noting the state's wish to subscribe to a planned €500m capital increase. Together, the equity move and the processing roadmap point to a Gabonese government seeking much deeper involvement in how its manganese wealth is converted into revenue, rather than simply taxing raw exports.
What it means for the market
If delivered, Gabon's shift to local processing would reshape a segment of the global manganese trade that has for decades relied on shipping raw ore to China and Europe for refining. It would also test whether Comilog and other Gabonese producers can build reliable power supply and logistics fast enough to hit Libreville's 2029 export deadline without disrupting the country's single largest source of mining revenue.
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