Eritrea Just Came Off the US Sanctions List. Its Mines Are Chinese
Eritrea's government called on its diaspora to invest in mining, pointing to the Bisha mine and the 1.08-billion-tonne Colluli potash project, projected at over US00 million a year in state revenue. The post Eritrea Just Came Off the US Sanctions List. Its Mines Are Chinese appeared first on The Rio Times .
Eritrea has removed itself from the US sanctions list, following the expiration of a national emergency declared in 2021. This change in US policy was confirmed by multiple wire services, including Reuters, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Agence France-Presse. However, there has been no official statement from Eritrea's government confirming an invitation for its diaspora to invest in the mining sector.
The claim was made in two unverified sources: a news article and an unsigned essay, both from March 2026 and lacking any documentation or source. The mining sector in Eritrea has been largely dominated by Chinese companies since 2019, with Bisha mine being the largest producing zinc project, owned 55% by a Chinese mining group and 45% by the state mining company.
Other notable assets include Zara gold mine and Colluli potash project, both partially owned by Chinese companies. The Colluli project, in particular, has a reserve of 1.08 billion tonnes of potassium oxide, but this figure is not from recent sources and should be treated with caution. The practical effect of the US lifting sanctions is that the state trading arm, which was a compliance obstacle, has been removed, reducing one specific barrier for Western investors.
However, the overall risk remains high due to the lack of verifiable information about Eritrea's government-sanctioned mining strategies and the dominant role of Chinese companies in the sector.
Written by urgent.news from The Rio Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
