On 30 January 2026, Madagascar officially ended its moratorium on mining permits, frozen since 2010. Sixteen years of blockage have left around 1,650 permit applications queued up — primarily for nickel, cobalt, graphite and ilmenite, critical minerals at the heart of the global energy transition.
A moratorium born of political tensions
The 2010 freeze was designed to bring order to a sector seen as too opaque and a source of land conflicts. For sixteen years, no new permits were granted for industrial minerals, stranding investors who had identified some of the most significant deposits in the Southern Hemisphere. Gold remains excluded from the reopening due to a glaring mismatch between official production — just 13 kg declared in 2023 — and the real scale of artisanal panning, as Madagascar's minister of mines acknowledged.
Critical minerals at the heart of the rebound
Pending applications target mainly nickel-cobalt (the already-operational Ambatovy project generates significant export revenues), natural graphite — Madagascar holds some of the world's largest deposits — and ilmenite. US company Energy Fuels has meanwhile formalised a memorandum of understanding for its Toliara project, valued at $2 billion with reserves of 904 million tonnes at 6.1% heavy minerals over a 38-year mine life, including 2,600 tonnes annually of neodymium-praseodymium oxide.
Balancing investment and sovereignty
The government has framed the reopening with strict requirements: 5% royalties, contractual community commitments of $80 million for the Toliara project, and compliance with the revised mining code. The 2025 EITI report underlines that permits are « an essential working tool » to attract legal and traceable investment.
Why it matters
Madagascar's mining register reopens precisely when the world is racing to diversify critical mineral supply chains away from China. The island positions itself as an indispensable player for the decade ahead in cobalt, graphite and light rare earths — provided this potential windfall is converted into lasting local development and durable fiscal revenues.