Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Sheikh Al-Ghazouani said that his country is heading towards a “better stage in the future, despite the turmoil and instability the world is experiencing,” stressing that his government “will solve the problem of mobilizing financial resources to implement development projects.”
Ould Al-Ghazouani was speaking on the night of Thursday-Friday, in front of a number of residents of the city of Akjoujt (250 kilometers north of the capital, Nouakchott), which is the area where the oldest copper and gold mines in the country are located.
For about a week, Ould Ghazouani has been touring the regions of northern Mauritania, where he meets residents, discusses the economic situation with them, and listens to their problems, while a number of ministers accompanying him respond to the residents’ demands.
In his speech to the residents of the city of Akjoujt, Ould Ghazouani affirmed his confidence that “the next stage will be better for the country and its various internal regions,” and in the same context, he pointed out that “Mauritania, despite the unrest and instability the world is witnessing, is capable of facing various challenges.” He stressed that “mobilizing financial resources will not, in the future, be an obstacle to implementing the development projects that the country needs,” after he spoke at length about the state’s relationship with international companies that exploit copper and gold mines.
He explained that “providing ideal conditions for exploiting mineral resources means adopting a policy that balances the importance of local and national benefiting from these resources, and rejecting and preventing everything that would affect health conditions and the environment.”
There are 3 major mines in Mauritania, the most famous of which is the iron ore mine in the city of Zouerate, which is exploited by a Mauritanian company, the copper mine in Akjoujt, which is exploited by a Canadian company, and the gold mine in Taziazt, which also belongs to a Canadian company.
The Mauritanian President explained that his government is seeking to open new mines, especially in light of the presence of huge mineral indicators in different regions of the country. He said that “the industrial mining sector has promising prospects,” as his government is working to “remove the obstacles that prevent the exploitation of new mines, thus allowing the creation of more job opportunities and providing additional financial resources for the country.”
Regarding the currently existing mines, Ould Al-Ghazouani said that the company that exploits the copper mine in Akjoujt had its contract renewed about a year ago, indicating that the primary goal of the renewal was “to ensure the continuation of economic activity in the city, and to preserve the job opportunities provided by the company,” stressing that the government was keen to “improve the conditions for renewing the contract, and align it with the provisions of the new mineral code, instead of the conditions to which the previous contract was subject.”
Ould Ghazouani has ruled Mauritania since 2019, and was re-elected for a second presidential term in 2024, but he faces sharp criticism from the opposition “because of his economic policies based on taxes and the removal of subsidies on fuel and basic materials,” while he asserts that the lifting of subsidies “was accompanied by a social policy aimed at supporting the poor classes.”
During the years of his rule, Ould Ghazouani succeeded in doubling the state budget and relying on a large percentage of the state budget to implement development projects, taking advantage of the rise in gold and iron prices, and the start of the production and export of natural gas.
