The Senegalese mining sector aims to accelerate the use of local skills to meet both increased investment, youth employment needs, and the Faye government’s new priorities regarding economic sovereignty. This strategy seeks to capture more added value within the country through training, talent retention, and the development of genuine local content around mining projects.
A Mining Sector That Has Become Strategic
Senegal possesses diverse resources – gold, phosphates, zircon, and construction materials – which make the mining sector one of the pillars of its exports and growth. Mining represents approximately one-third of exports and generates several hundred billion CFA francs in revenue, increasing the pressure to ensure that these resources benefit the national economy and the population more fully.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye reaffirmed this ambition by announcing a comprehensive reform of the sector: a new Mining Code, the creation of a national gold trading post, and the launch of a mining industrial hub in Matam to process phosphates locally. These measures are accompanied by a strong emphasis on transparency, traceability, and a fairer redistribution of mining revenues toward national priorities, particularly training.
A rush of young people toward mining careers
At the Dakar Mining Fair, the aisles are filled with recent graduates submitting their CVs to mining companies, illustrating the enormous appetite for jobs in this sector, which is considered promising and well-paid. For some engineering students and those at the Higher School of Mines and Geology, joining a mining company has become the ultimate graduation dream, as the sector is booming and recruits for a variety of technical profiles.
However, the reality of the job market remains competitive: several hundred applications are sometimes received for only a hundred positions, which pushes companies to refine their criteria for experience and specialization. This tension between supply and demand for jobs confirms both the social appeal of mining and the need to better adapt training to the real needs of current and future projects.
Focusing on local content and training
Senegal has adopted a specific law on local mining content, which defines a set of mechanisms to develop the national industrial and commercial fabric, as well as Senegalese skills, across the entire mining value chain. This strategy, aligned with the Mining Vision for Africa and the Emerging Senegal Plan, aims to make mining a driver of competitiveness for local SMEs rather than simply a sector for exporting raw materials.
In concrete terms, this involves prioritizing local employment, targeted recruitment and training plans, and mapping skills needed in fields such as geology, drilling, maintenance, and construction. Higher education institutions and initiatives like the Diamniadio campus are working to produce several thousand industrial graduates each year, even though a gap still exists between the profiles of those trained and the expectations of mining companies.
Retaining talent in the face of regional competition
For mining companies, attracting qualified professionals is no longer enough: they must also retain them long-term, as Senegalese engineers and technicians can be courted by other African countries or international groups. Human resources managers are thus emphasizing the need to offer competitive salaries, clear career paths, and working conditions that encourage young graduates to stay in Senegal.
Mauritania is pursuing a similar approach, focusing on local training to gradually replace expatriates in management positions, thereby creating regional competition for the same skills. Ultimately, the shared objective is to facilitate the transfer of skills from foreign experts to national managers, so that Africans have greater control over the governance and value created by their mineral resources.
Political reforms and sovereignty issues
The recent announcements by Bassirou Diomaye Faye regarding the revision of the Mining Code and the restructuring of public companies (such as SOMISEN and MIFERSO) reflect this desire to regain control over the sector. The future legal framework aims to establish a tax system deemed fairer and more adapted to market realities, while strengthening the State’s power over the marketing and processing of minerals.
By building “robust” processing industries capable of refining and adding value to minerals…
By investing locally, Senegal hopes to internalize a larger share of the added value and create skilled jobs for its youth. The focus on local skills thus becomes a central issue of economic sovereignty and social cohesion, in a context where the population expects more tangible benefits from mining revenues.
