Mauritania joins wave of local content regulation adopters

The north-west African state has joined several other countries in the continent , including Senegal, Burkina Faso, the Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, and Mali, in adopting new regulations aimed at increasing nationals’ involvement in extraction industries.

The move means increased obligations for companies looking to develop mining, oil and gas operations in the country to hire Mauritanian staff and work with local companies.

The regulations were adopted in September 2025, with the Mauritanian government now looking to designate the national local content secretariat, which will act as regulator for the sector.

As part of the change, companies will be required to record employment and procurement ratios and training programmes for local works via an online portal, giving increased visibility to the Mauritanian authorities to ensure the new rules are being complied with.

Olivier Bustin, a regulatory expert in the region with Pinsent Masons, said: ”Over the past few years, we have observed a strong and consistent trend across several francophone Sub-Saharan African jurisdictions towards the adoption of local content regulations in the extractive industries sector.”

“This is the latest illustration of the trend, but when we talk about local content regulations, it’s important to separate two very different objectives: one is about creating jobs for nationals within local entities, and the other is about bringing national investors into those companies’ shareholding. Although both share the same ‘local content’ label, these rules often serve different purposes.”

“Also, this trend, which primarily seeks to advance the private interests of national individuals, should not necessarily be equated with another trend of nationalisation or expropriation, which seeks to serve the national interests of a state,” he said.

“Indeed, last May, when the Government of Guinea revoked more than a hundred mining titles to return them free of charge to the State, some observers of the local extractive sector noted that the measure particularly affected companies controlled by Guinean nationals.”

Last month Mali revoked more than 90 mining licence for gold, bauxite, uranium and other minerals, with some dating back a decade, that had been issued to international companies operating in the country.

And in May Burkina Faso announced it was increasing state control in the country’s lucrative gold mining industry, a key part of the nation’s economy.