Sudan and South Sudan agreed on Saturday to revive bilateral cooperation in the mining sector. The deal includes activating long-stalled economic agreements and establishing a dedicated joint technical committee designed to share critical regulatory, geological, and administrative expertise between the neighboring nations.
The agreement was finalized during high-level bilateral discussions between Sudan’s Minerals Minister, Nour al-Daim Mohamed Ahmed Taha, and South Sudan’s Minister of Mining, Martin Gama Abucha. The diplomatic breakthrough occurred on the sidelines of the annual China Mining Conference held in Tianjin, an international forum where global mining firms and state representatives gather to negotiate extractive investments.
For South Sudan, the strategic pact represents a concrete step in its ongoing push to broaden its fragile economic base. Since gaining independence in 2011, the landlocked East African nation has remained almost entirely dependent on crude oil exports to fund its national budget and public services. However, market volatility, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and global shifts toward renewable energy have underscored the urgency for Juba to diversify its revenue sources.
South Sudan is widely believed to hold vast, untouched reserves of minerals, including gold, copper, iron ore, and industrial minerals. Despite this potential, the sector remains overwhelmingly undeveloped. Commercial exploration and large-scale private investment have been severely hindered by decades of conflict, under-exploration, and an absence of modernized geological survey data dating back to the mid-20th century. By opening up the sector to foreign investment and building modern administrative structures, South Sudanese officials hope to transform mining into a core pillar of the national economy.
A central element of the newly forged agreement is the deployment of Sudanese technical knowledge to assist South Sudan in developing and governing its fledgling extractive industry. Sudan possesses a much larger, highly active mining sector, supported by established regulatory bodies, state laboratories, and institutional frameworks for managing both artisanal and industrial mining operations.
Under the terms of the deal, the newly formed joint technical team will oversee bilateral initiatives, coordinate ongoing field projects, and translate previous memoranda of understanding into active, operational programs. The committee will focus heavily on standardizing regulatory protocols, establishing legal guidelines for concessions, and instituting best practices for environmental compliance and resource tracking.
Speaking at the Tianjin summit, both ministers emphasized that closer technical coordination would allow both nations to maximize the economic returns from their respective mineral reserves while mitigating operational risks.
To accelerate the implementation of the pact, Minister Taha extended an official invitation to Minister Abucha to lead a South Sudanese delegation to Khartoum. The upcoming visit will allow South Sudanese officials to conduct direct inspections of Sudan’s institutional infrastructure, legal oversight frameworks, and technical facilities.
