The recapitalization of Eramet, which saw Gabon acquire a significant stake, is facing unexpected political scrutiny in Paris. Arnaud Le Gall, a French lawmaker from the LFI-NFP party, has formally challenged the French government through a written inquiry published in the Official Journal on June 30, 2026. He casts doubt on the true nature of this financial operation. According to the elected official, the narrative portraying an enhancement of Gabonese mining sovereignty over its national resources might conceal a different reality: a financial bailout for the Duval family holding, a primary shareholder of Eramet via the Société de Développement et de Participations Minières et Industrielles (SDPMI).
Official interpretation under scrutiny
Gabonese authorities had previously presented this operation as a strategic advancement. As the world’s leading manganese producer through the Compagnie minière de l’Ogooué (Comilog), a long-standing Eramet subsidiary, Gabon viewed this capital entry into the parent company as a crucial lever to better capture extractive rents and exert greater influence over the group’s governance. Libreville has, for several years, pursued a trajectory aimed at reclaiming control over its strategic resources, a policy exemplified by revisions to its mining code and the state’s repositioning across various sectors.
Arnaud Le Gall directly challenges this perspective. For the deputy, what is being promoted as a gain in sovereignty for an African state appears primarily as a financial lifeline for French shareholders facing difficulties. The Duval family, with its historical ties to Eramet, has encountered documented financial pressures within its patrimonial portfolio. A recapitalization supported by an external sovereign investor inherently helps stabilize the shareholding structure without severely diluting historical positions.
Gabonese manganese: at the core of the stakes
The industrial background heavily influences this debate. Gabon generates a significant portion of Eramet’s revenues through Comilog, whose manganese exports supply global steel industries and, more recently, battery value chains. The group is also advancing projects in nickel and lithium, metals crucial for the energy transition. This operational reliance on Gabonese subsoil creates an asymmetry: Libreville supplies the raw resource, while value addition and strategic decision-making predominantly reside elsewhere.
The capital injection into the Parisian holding company was specifically intended to rectify this imbalance. However, the parliamentary inquiry seeks to determine the actual cost and the effective quid pro quos involved. The LFI deputy raises questions about the financial terms of the operation, the governance guarantees secured by the Gabonese state, and any potential direct or indirect involvement of the French state in the arrangement. He urges the Paris government to clarify its stance and specify whether French public interests supported the transaction.
A debate extending beyond the Eramet case
Beyond this specific mining dossier, the parliamentary challenge reignites a persistent debate concerning Franco-Gabonese economic relations. Since the political transition initiated in Libreville following the change of regime, Gabonese authorities have expressed a clear desire to renegotiate inherited balances, both in hydrocarbons and mining. Several French groups, long established in the country, have seen their positions reviewed or redefined. The Eramet episode fits within this broader context, but with a notable distinction: in this instance, it is the African state injecting capital into a French group, rather than the reverse.
This reversal of traditional roles explains the intensity of the controversy. For those who defend the operation, it signals the emergence of sovereign African shareholding capable of influencing the boardrooms of major European extractive companies. For its detractors, including Arnaud Le Gall, it raises fundamental questions about the financial rationality of the investment and the cost-benefit ratio for Gabonese public finances. The French government is obligated to provide a written response to the parliamentary question within regulatory deadlines, which could potentially illuminate some of the still opaque aspects of the arrangement.
The situation exemplifies the increasing complexity of economic relationships between Paris and its African partners, where every major capital operation now crystallizes competing interpretations. The deputy aims to obtain comprehensive details regarding all financial parameters of the recapitalization and any commitments potentially made by the French executive.
