Mining companies that have been operating in the Sahel for a long time are now experiencing a tectonic shift in their industry’s landscape in the region. The Sahel has always attracted entrepreneurial companies from far away Canada, Australia, Russia, South Africa and other places, eager to take risk in the Sahel, long regarded as a resource-rich region with vast mineral reserves. But these days, since the Sahelian nations of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso were taken over by military juntas, mining companies are now experiencing heightened risk like never before.