Eritrea

Mining is still essentially the only channel for foreign direct investment. The producing Bisha copper-zinc mine is 55% Chinese-owned and 45% owned by the state mining company ENAMCO, and it mined about 34,000 tonnes of zinc in the first half of 2026. In every mining project the state takes a 10% stake at no cost and has an option to buy up to 30% more, which sets the baseline terms any new entrant should expect.

Rio Times / Africa Intelligence · 2026-09-20

As of September there was no confirmed date for large-scale output at the Colluli potash project, a 50:50 venture between ENAMCO and China's Sichuan Road and Bridge Group, and World Bank guidance pointed to end-2027. Phase I is costed at about US$298 million. Suppliers and contractors should plan around a delayed and uncertain timeline.

Rio Times / Africa Intelligence · 2026-09-07

On 18 September, the US Treasury's sanctions office (OFAC) removed from its blocked-persons (SDN) list everyone designated under Executive Order 14046 (the Ethiopia sanctions programme) after the US let that national emergency lapse on 17 September 2026. That ends 11 designations, including the ruling PFDJ party, the Eritrean Defence Forces, the Red Sea Trading Corporation (which handles most of Eritrea's foreign trade) and a senior presidential economic adviser. Entrants should rescreen counterparties: designations under other programmes (GLOMAG, SDGT, Somalia, South Sudan) and EU listings are not covered by this action, and the US policy of denying defence-related exports to Eritrea stays in place.