Summary:

On 14 July 2026, Mauritania’s Minister of Mines and Industry Dy Ould Zeine and US Chargé d’Affaires in Mauritania Corina R. Sanders signed a framework agreement in Nouakchott to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals and rare earth elements. 

The agreement aims to support exploration, extraction and processing activities, while encouraging investment, expertise exchange and cooperation between the two countries in the mining sector. 

The agreement arrives as Mauritania is actively expanding its mining sector across multiple fronts. The country’s mining sector contributed approximately 24% of GDP and 30% of state revenue in recent years, driven primarily by iron ore, gold, and copper extraction.  

Mauritania also holds an estimated 24,500 metric tons of uranium reserves, with the Tiris uranium project advancing toward production, and is developing one of the world’s largest green hydrogen initiatives.  

The signing of the US agreement coincided with a separate memorandum of understanding signed the same week between Mauritania and China for the partial cancellation of Mauritanian debt, illustrating the degree to which Nouakchott is managing simultaneous engagement from competing great powers. 

Outlook: 

With this new agreement, Mauritania is positioning itself to gain greater importance in the critical minerals sector, as global competition over strategic resources intensifies and countries seek to diversify supply chains amid shifting geopolitical dynamics. 

The partnership with the United States reflects this trend while giving Nouakchott access to the expertise, technology and investment needed to develop a sector that remains capital intensive. 

The US framework agreement fits within a broader and accelerating American strategy to build alternative critical mineral supply chains that reduce dependence on China, which currently controls an estimated 87% of global critical minerals processing and refining and meets over 90% of US rare earth element demand.  

From Washington’s perspective, Mauritania offers a combination of mineral endowment, relative political stability by Sahelian standards, and an Atlantic-facing geography that fits the US preference for supply chains routed through Atlantic logistics networks rather than Chinese-controlled infrastructure.  

For Mauritania, the simultaneous US and Chinese engagement represents an opportunity to leverage competing interests into better terms. The parallel Chinese debt cancellation MOU signed the same week suggests Nouakchott is actively managing this dynamic, using interest from one partner to reinforce its position with the other. 

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