Research Fellow Hamidou Drame Publishes Article in OGEL on the Relationships Between Mining Companies and Local Communities Under the 2011 Guinean Mining Code

On October 18, 2019, Hamidou Drame published an article in OGEL titled “Relationships Between Mining Companies and Local Communities Under the 2011 Guinean Mining Code: An Analysis of the Legal Framework Governing LDAs and LEDFs.” Drame serves as a 2019-2020 MD Anderson Research Fellow in the Institute for Transnational Law at The University of Texas School of Law, where he is a pursuing a LL.M. in Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law. He is also a Fulbright Scholar from Guinea. Below is an abstract of the article. For more information, visit the OGEL website.

Abstract

The 2011 Guinean Mining Code (2011 MC) sets out the legal framework governing the relationships between mining companies and local communities. The negotiation of a local development agreement (LDA) and the payment of a financial contribution to a local economic development fund (LEDF) are new requirements for holders of mining titles. The 2011 Mining Code is viewed as part of the ‘fourth generation’ of African mining codes which include provisions on local development, environment protection, transparency and accountability in order to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to review the recent literature on the ‘contractual turn’ in the relationship between mining companies and local communities. And to analyse the legal and institutional framework established by the 2011 Mining Code for LDAs and LEDFs in order to identify the challenges associated with its application. The study shows that if Guinea is one of the few African countries that has imposed the negotiation of LDAs, the new provisions are not applied to all mining agreements signed before its entry into effect given stabilizations clauses included in those agreements. Therefore, this situation creates a dual framework for local communities affected by mining operations. Furthermore, community effective representation and its capacity to negotiate LDAs, and LEDFs governance remain challenges for achieving the goals fixed by the 2011 Mining Code for local development.