Afrimintel — Terms of Service

Terms of Service

Effective date: 21 May 2026

Last updated: 29 September 2026

Version: 1.0.4 (29 September 2026: §6 changed — AI-model training on public pages and feeds is now permitted, matching robots.txt, which already admitted AI crawlers; the ban on republication, redistribution and resale is unchanged; open resources carry their own licence. Not yet counsel-reviewed. Earlier: 1.0.3, 11 September 2026, clarifications only, no change to any right or obligation: a superseded paragraph in §3.1 that contradicted the published pricing is removed; the retired "AI deep-dive" tool is renamed to Ask Afrimintel, the platform's current AI feature, in §§1, 4.1, 5, 6, 8 and 9.1; the Team Tier definition now matches the published pricing page. Earlier: 1.0.2, §4.3 corrected to the three-label Quality Standard. Counsel-reviewed v1.1 to follow.)

By accessing or using afrimintel.com or subscribing to any Afrimintel tier, you agree to these Terms of Service (the "Terms"). If you do not agree, do not use the platform.

1. Definitions

• "Afrimintel", "we", "us" — Afrimintel Ltd, a private company limited by shares incorporated in Mauritius on 8 July 2026, company number 236730, operator of afrimintel.com and the Afrimintel Africa Mineral Intelligence platform.
• "Platform" — afrimintel.com and all associated software, datasets, AI tools, PDFs, and intelligence outputs provided under any Afrimintel subscription tier.
• "You", "Subscriber" — the natural person or legal entity using the Platform.
• "Free Tier" — the no-cost researcher tier, available with email registration.
• "Pro Tier" — the $149 USD per month single-seat tier (or $1,490 USD per year if billed annually).
• "Team Tier" — the $549 USD per month five-seat tier, published on the pricing page.
• "Institutional Tier" — multi-seat enterprise tier from $2,950 USD per month, sold under negotiated terms.
• "Project Engagement" — bespoke advisory work delivered as a one-off project under a separate Statement of Work (SoW), priced from $25,000 USD.
• "Intelligence Output" — any analysis, score, dossier, Ask Afrimintel answer, transaction comparable, methodology document, or other content produced by Afrimintel and made available to you via the Platform.

2. Eligibility and account registration

2.1 Professional users only

The Platform is intended for professional B2B use only. By registering, you confirm that you are:

• At least 18 years old
• Acting in a professional capacity (employee, consultant, executive, researcher, ministry official, investor, or equivalent), or as an academic / student in a research context
• Not located in a jurisdiction subject to comprehensive sanctions that would prohibit the provision of services to you (the United Nations Security Council list and applicable national sanctions lists apply)

2.2 Account information

You agree to provide accurate registration information and to keep it current. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials. You are responsible for all activity under your account, except where you have promptly reported a credential compromise to nikesh@afrimintel.com.

2.3 One account per individual

Public read access is provided on a per-individual-reader basis. Where a bespoke commercial engagement is established, account, seat, and access provisions will be set out in the engagement letter governing that specific engagement.

3. Subscription tiers, pricing, and billing

3.1 Commercial structure

Afrimintel Ltd operates published self-service subscription tiers (see Pricing), purchasable directly. Institutional, project, and bespoke engagements are structured around the institution's mandate, scale, and decision context; institutional users seeking these should contact nikesh@afrimintel.com.

3.2 Free read access

Public read access to the Afrimintel platform at afrimintel.com is provided without charge on the free tier. Free read access does not constitute a subscription, does not entitle the reader to support, and may be modified or withdrawn at Afrimintel's discretion with reasonable notice.

3.3 Bespoke engagement terms

Where Afrimintel Ltd and an institution agree on a bespoke commercial engagement, terms will be set out in a written engagement letter or contract specific to that engagement, including scope, deliverables, timeline, fees, payment terms, VAT treatment, and refund/variation conditions. The engagement letter will govern the commercial relationship; nothing in these Terms creates a commitment to specific pricing or commercial terms outside of an executed engagement letter.

3.4 VAT and taxes

Afrimintel is registered for VAT in Mauritius. Where commercial engagements are structured, VAT will be applied at the rate appropriate to the engagement and the institution's billing jurisdiction. For institutional clients in jurisdictions where reverse-charge VAT applies, invoices will be issued without VAT and the institution is responsible for self-accounting under the reverse-charge mechanism. Institutions are responsible for any withholding tax applicable in their jurisdiction and for providing tax exemption certificates where applicable.

4. What we provide and what we do NOT provide

4.1 What we provide

Afrimintel provides intelligence outputs about African mineral provinces, deposits, transactions, country risk, and related subjects. Specifically:

• Province scores and dossiers for 13 African geological provinces
• Deposit dossiers with primary-source citation for worked dossier-grade and intelligence-grade records, plus spatial-reference entries for map context
• A NI 43-101 / JORC / S-K 1300 knowledge base of African technical reports
• Comparable transaction data
• Country records showing the Fraser IAI, TI CPI, NRGI Resource Governance Index and EITI status, each as its publisher states it
• Ask Afrimintel: answers to questions, produced by a third-party AI model from the platform's published records
• DCF / NPV modelling tools
• Critical and battery minerals sub-vertical with IEA STEPS / APS / NZE scenario context
• Audit Log entries documenting changes, corrections, and methodology updates
• Daily Brief and watchlist features
• Methodology PDF, Category Definition Paper, Independence Policy, and other reference documents

4.2 What we do NOT provide — INTELLIGENCE OUTPUTS ARE NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE

Critical clause. Read carefully.

Afrimintel provides intelligence and analysis. Afrimintel does NOT provide:

• Investment advice
• Financial advice
• Legal advice
• Tax advice
• Recommendations to buy, sell, or hold any specific security, commodity, or asset
• Recommendations to enter into, exit from, or modify any specific transaction
• Recommendations to adopt or refrain from any specific government policy or regulatory action
• Recommendations to operate, develop, or close any specific mining or exploration project
• Verification or warranty of the operating status, financial condition, or regulatory compliance of any company referenced on the Platform

You are responsible for your own decisions. If you intend to act on any Intelligence Output, you should consult appropriately qualified professionals (geologists, mining engineers, financial advisors, legal counsel, tax advisors) and conduct your own independent verification. Afrimintel's intelligence outputs may inform your decision; they may not replace professional advice or independent technical and legal verification.

4.3 Methodology disclosure and confidence labels

Afrimintel publishes its scoring methodology at afrimintel.com/methodology/ (the PDF edition previously published at afrimintel.com/afrimintel_methodology.pdf was withdrawn on 31 August 2026 and that address now redirects to the live page). Every data point on the Platform is tagged with one of three confidence labels: Sourced, Derived, or Absent — there is no fourth state. You should consider these labels when relying on any Intelligence Output. Do not cite Derived or Absent data in professional documents without disclosing the confidence label.

4.4 Coverage status

Afrimintel is generally available and commercially priced as of August 2026. Coverage is intentionally tiered — see the published Methodology PDF and Category Paper for current scope. The Platform is functional and commercially priced, but coverage will continue to expand on a documented quarterly cycle. Coverage status does not affect your contractual rights as a paying Subscriber.

5. Independence Policy

Afrimintel operates under a permanent Independence Policy. Province scores, deposit dossiers, Ask Afrimintel answers, and Field Correction reviews are produced without commercial consideration from operators, governments, equipment vendors, or any organisation whose data appears on the platform. Marketplace listings, while the marketplace ran (to 2 Oct 2026), were not paid placements. Subscription tier does not influence editorial output.

The full Independence Policy is published at afrimintel.com/methodology/independence/. The Independence Policy is binding on Afrimintel and is incorporated into these Terms by reference.

6. Acceptable use

Crawling and AI training. Automated crawling, indexing and AI-model training on pages and feeds that are public (reachable without an account) are permitted. We ask that anything derived from them credit “Source: Afrimintel (afrimintel.com)”. This does not permit republishing or redistributing the platform’s content as a dataset, reselling it, or accessing anything behind an account; those remain governed by this section. Resources listed as open in the manifest carry their own licence.

You may NOT:

• Use the Platform to scrape, harvest, or systematically download intelligence outputs for republication, redistribution, or commercial resale, except as expressly permitted by a written engagement letter or by the open licence a resource carries
• Reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract source code or proprietary methodology beyond what is published
• Share login credentials beyond the seat count permitted by your tier
• Use the Platform to facilitate any activity that would violate applicable sanctions, anti-bribery, or anti-money-laundering law
• Use the Platform to misrepresent yourself or another person, including impersonation, false attribution, or unauthorised representation of an organisation
• Use Ask Afrimintel to generate content for harassment, defamation, or unlawful purposes
• Knowingly submit false information through the Field Corrections programme
• Attempt to gain unauthorised access to other Subscriber accounts or to Afrimintel's systems
• Republish substantial portions of any Methodology PDF, Category Paper, Acquirer Brief, API Reference, Competitor Gap, Independence Policy, or Audit Log entry without prior written consent

You MAY:

• Use the Platform's intelligence outputs to inform your professional analysis, decision-making, and internal documents
• Cite Afrimintel intelligence outputs in client-facing reports, investor materials, ministry briefings, and academic work, with appropriate attribution (form: "Source: Afrimintel Africa Mineral Intelligence, {publication date}") and with disclosure of the relevant confidence label
• Export and share derivative analysis based on Afrimintel data, provided the underlying data is not being republished verbatim and proper attribution is given
• Submit Field Corrections through the published Field Corrections programme

7. Intellectual property

7.1 Our IP

Afrimintel and its licensors own all intellectual property in the Platform, including:

• The Afrimintel Score methodology and formulas
• All scoring outputs, dossiers, and synthesised analytical content
• All software, code, and platform infrastructure
• All branding, trademarks, and visual identity
• The Methodology PDF, Category Definition Paper, Acquirer Brief, API Reference, Competitor Gap, and Independence Policy

You receive a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Platform and its outputs for the purposes set out in Section 6 above, for the duration of your subscription, subject to these Terms.

7.2 Source data

Afrimintel synthesises publicly-available source data including NI 43-101 and JORC technical reports, USGS and BGS publications, Fraser Institute survey data, EITI compliance records, and other primary sources. Source data remains the property of its original publishers. Afrimintel's intellectual property subsists in the synthesis, scoring, and analytical layer applied to source data.

7.3 Your data

You retain ownership of any data you submit to the Platform (Field Corrections, Deal Tracker entries, watchlists, saved queries, account profile data). By submitting Field Corrections, you grant Afrimintel a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free licence to incorporate your correction into the Platform, with named attribution per the Field Corrections programme. You warrant that you have the right to submit any data you submit and that submission does not breach any confidentiality obligation you owe to a third party.

8. Confidentiality and data

Watchlist entries, Deal Tracker entries, saved queries, and questions you put to Ask Afrimintel are confidential to your account. Afrimintel will not share these with any third party, other Subscriber, mining operator, government, or DFI, except as required by valid legal process and as set out in the Privacy Policy.

For Institutional subscribers handling confidential commercial data via the Platform: Afrimintel can execute a separate Mutual NDA on request prior to onboarding. Default handling for all data submitted by Subscribers follows the Privacy Policy.

9. Liability and indemnity

9.1 No warranty on intelligence outputs

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the Platform and all Intelligence Outputs are provided "as-is" and "as-available" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including any warranty of accuracy, completeness, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or non-infringement. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing:

• Afrimintel does not warrant that any Intelligence Output is current, complete, or free from error
• Afrimintel does not warrant that the Platform will be uninterrupted or error-free
• Afrimintel does not warrant the accuracy of source data published by third parties (Fraser Institute, USGS, BGS, NI 43-101 filings, JORC reports, EITI records, etc.) which Afrimintel has synthesised
• Afrimintel does not warrant the accuracy of Ask Afrimintel answers, which are generated by a third-party AI model and which may contain errors, even where the platform has checked their figures against the records supplied

You are responsible for verifying any Intelligence Output before relying on it for material commercial, legal, or financial decisions.

9.2 Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Afrimintel's aggregate liability to you under these Terms in any 12-month period shall not exceed the greater of:

• The fees you have paid to Afrimintel in the 12 months preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or
• USD 1,000

Afrimintel shall not be liable for any indirect, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, or incidental damages, including but not limited to loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of business, loss of reputation, or loss of data, even if Afrimintel has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

This Section 9.2 does not apply to: (a) liability for death or personal injury caused by Afrimintel's negligence; (b) liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; (c) any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law.

9.3 Indemnity

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Afrimintel and its officers, employees, contractors, and agents from any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from:

• Your breach of these Terms
• Your misuse of the Platform
• Your unauthorised distribution or republication of Intelligence Outputs
• Any decision you make in reliance on an Intelligence Output where you have not undertaken independent verification consistent with Section 4.2

10. Term and termination

10.1 Term

These Terms apply from the date you first access the Platform or create an account, and continue until terminated.

10.2 Cancellation by you

• Free-tier read access: discontinue at any time by ceasing to access the Platform. No fees or commitments apply.
• Bespoke commercial engagements: cancellation, variation, and notice provisions are governed by the executed engagement letter for that specific engagement.

10.3 Termination by Afrimintel

Afrimintel may suspend or terminate your account with notice for:

• Material breach of these Terms (including breach of Section 6 Acceptable Use)
• Non-payment of fees within 30 days of due date
• Sanctions or legal compliance reasons

Afrimintel may suspend or terminate your account without notice in cases of fraud, abuse, attempt to compromise platform security, or breach of confidentiality obligations.

10.4 Effect of termination

On termination:

• Your access to the Platform ends immediately
• Pro / Team / Institutional fees already paid are non-refundable except as set out above
• You must cease using and destroy any cached copies of Intelligence Outputs that exceed Section 6's permitted use
• Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (Sections 4.2, 4.3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12) survive

11. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Material changes will be:

• Notified to all paid Subscribers by email at least 30 days before they take effect
• Posted on this page with an updated "Last updated" date
• Logged in the platform Audit Log

For Free tier users, changes take effect on the date posted; continued use indicates acceptance.

For paid Subscribers, if a material change is unacceptable to you, you may terminate your subscription before the change takes effect and receive a pro-rata refund for any remaining prepaid period.

12. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of Mauritius, without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

For disputes:

• Free, Pro, Team Subscribers: disputes shall be resolved by the courts of Mauritius, which shall have exclusive jurisdiction.
• Institutional Subscribers and Project Engagement clients: disputes shall be resolved through good-faith negotiation, failing which through mediation, failing which through arbitration under the rules of the [International Chamber of Commerce / London Court of International Arbitration / Mauritius International Arbitration Centre — counsel to recommend], seated in [Port Louis / London / Singapore — counsel to recommend], in the English language.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to protect its intellectual property or confidential information.

13. General

13.1 Entire agreement

These Terms (together with the Privacy Policy, Independence Policy, Methodology PDF where it relates to scoring methodology, and any executed Institutional contract or Statement of Work) constitute the entire agreement between you and Afrimintel regarding the Platform.

13.2 Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held unenforceable, the remaining provisions remain in full effect.

13.3 No waiver

A failure by Afrimintel to enforce any provision is not a waiver of the right to enforce it later.

13.4 Assignment

You may not assign these Terms without our written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of substantially all of our assets, on notice to you.

13.5 Force majeure

Neither party is liable for failure to perform due to events beyond reasonable control, including natural disaster, war, terrorism, pandemic, internet or hosting infrastructure outage, or government action.

13.6 Notices

Notices to Afrimintel: nikesh@afrimintel.com.

Notices to you: the email address registered to your account.

14. Contact

Afrimintel — Africa Mineral Intelligence

Afrimintel Ltd, Mauritius

Editorial responsibility: Nikesh Patel, geochemist, geochemist

nikesh@afrimintel.com