The African Minerals Geoscience Initiative (AMGI) is a pan-African initiative under the leadership of the Africa Union Commission for the collection, consolidation, interpretation and effective dissemination of national and regional geodata through a geo-portal, thereby increasing accurate and updated geo-scientific data available in public domain. This would be done with the ultimate goal of seeking to facilitate broad-based governance changes in the mineral and other downstream and side-stream sectors, including: (i) improved licensing processes and procedures that efficiently leverage the natural resource wealth of countries; (ii) improved spatial planning, infrastructure development, forest and wildlife conservation through the use of regional resource corridors; and (iii) sustainable development policies for natural resources management.

AMGI corresponds to one of 9 clusters (Geological and Mining Information Systems) of the African Mining Vision (AMV) Action Plan. The African Mining Vision (AMV) was developed by Africa’s Ministers responsible for Mineral Resources at their conference in Addis Ababa in October 2008, with the ultimate objective that Africa’s mineral resources must be used to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eradicate poverty, and achieve rapid and broad-based socio-economic development. The African Union Heads of State and government, at their assembly in Addis in February 2009, welcomed the AMV and requested the “AU Ministers in charge of Mineral Resources Development to develop a concrete action plan for its realization”. The AMV Action Plan therefore responds to this directive. It comprises several program clusters of activities constructed around the key pillars of the vision.