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Investing in Africa – themes from the first half of 2026
The first half of 2026 has seen significant investment activity in the African mining sector. Our team has been monitoring developments closely, including in conversations with colleagues at the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, and at our recent Africa StrongerTogether conference in London. In this blog, we highlight some of the key trends that are shaping how investors are approaching mining projects on the continent.
Sustained investment from a range of sources
Africa continues to receive significant inbound investment from large, traditional mining companies. However, the influence of a broader range of investors, in particular investors from the broader BRICS bloc, is also evident.
This broad range of influences is shaping both the local mining industries and the approach to partnerships and contracting. In particular, the ever-increasing investment in Africa by Chinese businesses, which so far this year has seen private Chinese entities buy mining operations across Ethiopia, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire and China announce significant planned investment in Mozambique, is influencing project structuring, procurement strategies and contractual frameworks, as well as approaches to risk allocation.
The strong returns in the sector from a number of commodities (in particular gold and commodities essential to the energy transition) have also raised expectations of continued strong levels of M&A activity on the continent in the short and medium term.
There is a growing emphasis within the industry on “integrated mining projects”. These projects involve companies not only establishing and operating a mine, but also building and, in some circumstances, operating associated critical infrastructure, such as power and transport networks, and raw material processing facilities in the local area. These projects are growing in popularity, with states seeing them as effective ways of leveraging their natural resources to promote greater levels of economic and industrial activity, and to accelerate infrastructure development, at a domestic level.
There have been notable projects in Guinea, in the copper belt regions of Zambia, including to modernise the existing Tanzania-Zambia railway (with project implementation beginning at the start of the year), and to develop the Lobito corridor rail infrastructure connecting mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Lobito port in Angola, with construction bidding on the project reported as starting in spring 2026.
These projects carry significant potential benefits for the companies involved, including commercial benefits such as greater control over associated infrastructure, potential cost reductions and more reliable delivery of products to the relevant markets. The projects can, however, equally present their own legal, reputational and commercial risks that need to be managed from the outset.
The primary challenges are the sizeable upfront capital investment required and the complexities of constructing and operating large-scale infrastructure in addition to the mine itself, all of which can create financial strain. Reputational risks can also be significant; any failure in the provision of services or disputes over access to the infrastructure may lead to tensions with both the government and local communities. Further, by increasing their physical and economic footprint in a country, companies become more exposed to political and regulatory risk (including potential changes in law, government and regulatory interventions) and international/regional conflicts.
Mining reforms across a number of West African jurisdictions have also been a key theme of discussion. Governments are increasingly seeking to recalibrate mining codes and regulatory frameworks to secure a greater share of revenues from natural ren
A key driver of this trend has been the adoption of Regulation No. 02/2023/CM/UEMOA, which introduced reforms to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) community mining framework and has since been adopted at a domestic level by a number of WAEMU Member States, representing a significant portion of West Africa. This regional initiative has, in many respects, catalysed a broader wave of mining law reform across the region.
A number of countries have already implemented reforms. For example, Burkina Faso adopted a new mining code in July 2024, increasing state participation, strengthening local content requirements and enhancing regulatory oversight.
Other jurisdictions are actively progressing changes. In Côte d’Ivoire, reforms are underway to amend mining sector regulation, including efforts to formalise artisanal mining and to make changes to governance and transparency rules. Senegal is also advancing a revised mining code, with a stated objective of improving governance and making changes to the distribution of mining revenues between state and local communities. Across the wider region, including Guinea (which announced tighter controls on mining revenue exports in April) and neighbouring Sahel states, governments have similarly signalled or implemented reforms aimed at increasing local value addition, including requirements for domestic processing of mineral resources.
Taken together, these developments reflect a broader policy shift across West Africa towards greater state participation in, and control over, the mining sector. These reforms can create uncertainty for investors, particularly where changes are introduced rapidly or applied to existing projects. As a result, investors are placing greater emphasis on stabilisation mechanisms, treaty and contractual protections and political risk mitigation strategies when entering into new projects or renegotiating existing arrangements. At the same time, there is a growing recognition of the importance of maintaining constructive relationships with host governments and aligning project development with broader national development goals.
Disputes trends and risk management
Alongside these opportunities, there has been a broad recognition within the sector of the evolving litigation risk companies are facing in a number of countries.
In particular, a number of local mining regulators have shown an increasing appetite to investigate alleged breaches of mining laws and licences. This has included revocations of mining licences in Senegal, Tanzania, Ghana and Niger already in 2026, coupled with domestic litigation. More broadly, there is an increasing expectation that international investors may be held to account in those jurisdictions.
There has also been renewed focus on how companies can operate effectively in the parts of Africa currently experiencing conflict. As is the case elsewhere in the world, conflict can, and has, developed at pace in parts of Africa, with investors and operators focused on how to diligence these risks effectively on entry, operate in a way that does not contribute to conflict or increase legal risk for the company itself, and have contingency plans to mitigate risks if conflict does take place at or near operations. For more information on the legal risks associated with operating in, or sourcing from, areas experiencing conflict, please see our separate series of blogs (available here).
Authors
Chris Bellringer
Alexandra van der Meulen
Joshua Kelly
Thembela Ndwandwe
Veronika Timofeeva
Senior Associate
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