Burkina Faso has opened its first-ever gold refinery, a major step by the military government to process more of its mineral wealth at home and reduce dependence on exporting unrefined gold.
Junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated the National Gold Refinery of Burkina Faso (RAFFINOR-BF) in the capital Ouagadougou on Monday.
The facility, under construction since 2023, cost about 11 billion CFA francs ($19 million) and was financed by the state through the National Precious Metals Company (Sonasp) in partnership with the domestic private sector.
It has an initial annual refining capacity of 164 tonnes of gold, well above the country’s recent production and is projected to expand to as much as 515 tonnes in a later phase.
The plant will refine doré gold into high-purity bars (around 99.9 percent), while also handling assaying, certification, and secure storage.
Authorities expect it to create roughly 100 direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect ones.
Burkina Faso ranks among Africa’s top gold producers, with output exceeding 94 tonnes last year according to the World Gold Council. Gold accounts for the bulk of the country’s export earnings.
Yet successive governments have long struggled to regulate the large informal and artisanal mining sector, which has been plagued by smuggling and insecurity linked to jihadist groups active across parts of the Sahel.
Traoré, who seized power in a 2022 coup, has pursued a nationalist economic agenda focused on greater state control of natural resources and domestic value addition.
His government has nationalised several mines, required foreign firms to give the state a stake in operations, and previously suspended exports of informally mined gold in an effort to curb illicit flows that officials say help finance terrorism.
“Our ambition is no longer to be a country that simply extracts and ships its raw materials abroad,” Traoré said. “We want to refine all our metals locally… we want to have the entire value chain here.”
The presidency described the opening as a “historic milestone in its quest for economic independence.”
Mines Minister Yacouba Zabré Gouba added that the country was taking back control so its gold creates value for Burkinabè
