(Ecofin Agency) - Manganese is Gabon’s third-largest export after oil and timber. Most of the country’s production comes from Eramet, a French company. The firm, however, recently cut its forecast for 2024–a move that could offset Libreville’s plans to ramp up the national output this year.

Production at Gabon’s Moanda mine, the world’s biggest manganese mine, is on pause. Eramet, the company that owns the mine, disclosed the news on October 15, adding that the mine was shut for "at least three weeks”. The move could offset Gabon’s expectations for the year; it foresaw a 2% increase in production to 10.3 million tonnes.

Eramet said it suspended the mine due to lower purchases by Chinese manganese alloy producers, driven by a major drop in China’s carbon steel output this summer. The whole situation spurred a market imbalance, hurting sales of high-grade ore from Moanda and affecting prices.

While Gabon has not specified how much Eramet will contribute to the expected volumes for 2024, the company's initial forecast was between 7-7.5 million tonnes. This has now been scaled down to 6.5-7 million tonnes. The impact of these changes on Gabon's overall targets is still unclear.

According to the World Bank, Manganese, oil, and wood made up 83% of Gabon's exports in 2023.  In H1 2024, the country produced 4.91 million tonnes of manganese, up 26.2% year-on-year. Over the same period this year, the country exported 4.39 million tonnes of manganese, earning $652.26 million (+5.9% YoY).

In Gabon, Eramet operates Comilog, its subsidiary and the world's top manganese producer. Last year, Comilog produced 7.4 million tonnes of manganese ore.

Emiliano Tossou