By: OrePulse

Côte d’Ivoire formally unveiled a 15-year, 38,000 billion CFA franc strategy to expand its mining, oil, gas and electricity sectors on November 9, under a program it calls the Integrated Mineral and Energy Resources Policy, known by its French acronym PIRME.

President Alassane Ouattara is spearheading the plan, which was presented by Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, the country’s Minister of Mines, Petroleum and Energy. The minister described the policy as a “paradigm shift” for Côte d’Ivoire’s extractive and energy industries.

PIRME aims to make mining, hydrocarbons and energy the country’s second-largest economic driver by 2040, after agriculture. The policy is built around an integrated approach that develops mineral, oil and electricity resources together, on the premise that mining requires abundant energy and infrastructure while revenue from extractive industries can help finance industrial development elsewhere in the economy.

Targets for 2040

The government’s numerical targets are substantial. It aims to roughly double the extractives and energy sector’s contribution to gross domestic product, from about 7 percent in 2025 to approximately 14 percent by 2040. Oil production is targeted to reach 500,000 barrels a day by 2040, up from 80,000 barrels a day in 2026, while natural gas supply is set to increase from 320 million to 1,000 million cubic feet a day over the same period. Electricity generation capacity is planned to triple with an additional 8,000 megawatts of capacity, and a new refinery with capacity of 6.1 million metric tons is planned by 2032.

Infrastructure and local content

The policy calls for new natural gas pipelines connecting Abidjan to Bouaké and San Pedro, as well as a 474-kilometer railway line between San Pedro and Man. It sets a high bar for local participation, requiring that 95 percent of the workforce on projects developed under the policy be Ivorian and that 95 percent of services be contracted to local companies.

Officials said the policy is intended to reduce Côte d’Ivoire’s dependence on imports and strengthen its position as a West African energy hub, while opening opportunities for investors and businesses in exploration, project development and major infrastructure construction, including the planned pipelines and rail line.

Gold ambitions and a new state refiner

On the mining side, the policy sets a goal for Côte d’Ivoire to become Africa’s leading gold producer by 2035. To support that goal, the government is creating the Ivorian Precious Metals Company (SIMEP), a new state-linked entity intended to refine gold domestically rather than exporting it in raw form.

Local processing and domestic content requirements are described by officials as central pillars of the broader industrial strategy behind PIRME, which sets targets across oil, gas, electricity and rail infrastructure in addition to mining. The approach reflects the government’s stated intent to develop the country’s extractive and energy resources as a single, integrated system rather than as separate industries.