NATIONAL PETITION

Call to mobilize for the safeguard of Algeria’s mining and energy resources

For the repeal of the new mining law and the establishment of citizen oversight over the country’s resources

Algerian women, Algerian men,

Adopted in haste, this law was never subject to any national debate.
This text hands over our strategic mineral wealth to foreign multinationals, weakens environmental protections, and puts an end to sovereign control over our natural resources.

From now on, our most precious minerals — rare earths, critical metals, gold, uranium — may be exploited without restriction, without any obligation of local processing, and without economic benefit for Algeria. While others build their industries thanks to our resources, we will remain mere spectators of our own dispossession.

This law is nothing more than a sell-off disguised as investment. It is imperative to act before it is too late.

What this law means

Total loss of sovereignty

• The strategic status of mineral resources is abolished.
• The 51/49% rule, which guaranteed the Algerian state majority control, is abandoned.

A major environmental risk

• The full environmental impact study is replaced by a simple administrative notice validated by the walis (provincial governors).
• This opens the door to uncontrolled exploitation, with risks of ecosystem destruction, groundwater pollution, and soil contamination.

Shale gas: an ecological and public health time bomb

• The law also paves the way for the exploitation of shale gas, despite it being rejected by many countries.
• Hydraulic fracturing consumes colossal quantities of water, threatens the underground aquifers of the Sahara, and exposes populations to hazardous chemicals.
• Algeria, already affected by water stress, cannot afford this ecological and public health disaster.

A weakened economy

• No mechanism for local processing: raw exports with no added value.
• No guarantee of employment or knowledge transfer.

Legislation tailor-made for multinationals

• Exceptional legal guarantees for foreign investors.
• Transferable concessions without any review of the original terms.
• Irrevocable rulings by the walis, even where projects prove destructive.

A danger to local populations

• Risks of abusive expropriation and forced displacement.
• Total absence of social and health protection mechanisms.

We demand the immediate repeal of this law

This law constitutes a direct threat to Algeria’s economic, environmental, and sovereign future. We call for its repeal and the opening of a genuine national debate.

We call for the creation of a National Committee for the Safeguard of Resources, bringing together scientists, economists, legal experts, environmentalists, and engaged citizens, in order to:

• Defend the national interest against decisions contrary to the interests of the people.
• Demand citizen oversight over the exploitation of resources.
• Mobilize experts and civil society to propose viable alternatives.
• Pressure the authorities through public, media, and legal action.

Algeria belongs to its people. It is time to act — let us all defend it!

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