President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema signed a Gabon manganese agreement with France on Monday, opening a three-day state visit to Paris centred on manganese processing and wider defence ties.
The Gabon manganese agreement was sealed at the Elysee Palace in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron. Eramet and its Gabonese subsidiary, Eramet Comilog, signed the memorandum of understanding with the Gabonese government, the mining company confirmed in a statement issued in Paris on Monday.
Under the terms of the Gabon manganese agreement, Eramet aims to lift its local processing capacity to 700,000 tonnes of manganese ore a year by the end of 2031. The company said it is studying three industrial scenarios to reach that figure.
The first involves a new manganese oxide plant near Libreville, with an initial capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year. Eramet said the plant, which would process about 20,000 tonnes of ore, could begin operating by the end of 2028, subject to a final investment decision. Output is earmarked for the electric vehicle battery supply chain and high-performance steelmaking.
The second scenario covers the revamp of the Moanda Metallurgical Complex, where Eramet Comilog has processed manganese into alloys and oxide since 2015. Eramet said studies are under way to raise output at the site to as much as 70,000 tonnes of manganese alloys a year, with a restart targeted for the end of 2029.
The third and largest element of the Gabon manganese agreement is a new alloy plant near the Gabonese coast, with a planned capacity of 265,000 tonnes a year. Eramet said this project, which could start in 2031, would need a separate investment agreement and depends on securing a stable energy supply.
Energy access sits at the centre of the Gabon manganese agreement. Eramet said the Gabonese government has committed to developing the power infrastructure required for the new alloy plant, while the company will assess the profitability of each scenario independently before any project proceeds.
As part of the wider Gabon manganese agreement, Eramet and Eramet Comilog also agreed to build up a local biochar industry using forestry waste, which can replace imported metallurgical coke in ore processing. A pilot kiln has been running in Lastourville since July in partnership with the timber firm Precious Woods, with a 10,000-tonne annual production unit planned by 2029.
A steering committee drawn from Eramet, Eramet Comilog and the Gabonese government will meet every quarter to track progress on the agreement, including the biochar programme and a newly launched Made in Gabon seed fund. Eramet said the fund is designed to create 3,000 jobs across Gabon’s wider industrial sector, working alongside Setrag, operator of the Trans-Gabon railway.
Eramet chair and chief executive Christel Bories said the group was pleased to give concrete shape to its commitment to Gabon’s industrial sector, adding that the roadmap follows more than a year of technical work between the company and Gabonese authorities.
Comilog, Gabon’s leading manganese producer, has processed part of its ore locally at the Moanda Industrial Complex since 2000. Gabon ranks among the world’s largest manganese producers and has set a January 2029 deadline for all ore mined in the country to be processed before export, a policy that shaped the negotiations behind the Gabon manganese agreement.
Beyond the Gabon manganese agreement, the state visit also touched on defence matters. French Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin and her Gabonese counterpart, Brigitte Onkanowa, signed documents on the sidelines of the visit covering the sale of the former French military base known as Camp de Gaulle in Libreville, whose role has shifted in recent years towards training Gabonese forces.
Oligui Nguema travelled to Paris with a delegation of more than 80 business and political officials, on his second official visit to France since he seized power in an August 2023 coup that ended more than five decades of rule by the Bongo family. He was elected president in April 2025 with almost 95 per cent of the vote, and the Paris trip follows up on agreements reached when Macron visited Libreville in November 2025.
