Fire causes Eramet to halt Senegal mineral sands output from end of March

Eramet will suspend its mineral sands production in Senegal from the end of March following a fire, the French mining group said on Thursday.

The company last week announced plans for a 500 million euro ($590.25 million) capital increase and the sale of stakes in some activities, after a slump in earnings and a jump in debt.

It also faces a management crisis following the dismissal of former CEO Paulo Castellari and the suspension of finance chief Abel Martins-Alexandre earlier this month.

The company said the fire at its Eramet Grande Cote operations in Senegal on February 22 had halted the wet concentration plant part of the site.

“Its unavailability interrupts the production process and will lead to the suspension of operations across the entire site at the end of March 2026 for an extended period, the duration of which remains undetermined at this stage,” Eramet said in a statement.

Eramet has declared force majeure for contracts and suspended guidance for 2026 production, it added. The company had targeted production of more than 900,000 metric tons of heavy mineral concentrate this year, similar to 2025 output.

Eramet first reported the fire on Monday and has said there were no casualties or injuries.

Eramet shares were down 3.9% at 09:03 GMT, underperforming a slight rise in the SBF 120 index in Paris. The shares had rebounded earlier this week from a five-month low.

Eramet has expanded mineral sands output but a drop in market prices pushed down profits from the division last year.

Its biggest activities are manganese mining in Gabon and nickel mining in Indonesia, while it is in the early stages of producing lithium in Argentina.

($1 = 0.8471 euros)

(By Gus Trompiz and Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Barbara Lewis)