Burkina Faso opens first gold refinery
Burkina Faso has opened its first gold refinery as the military-led government seeks to process more of the country’s mineral wealth at home and tighten its control over one of its most important industries.
Junta leader Ibrahim Traoré said the move was part of a wider effort to end the country’s reliance on exporting raw materials for processing abroad.
“We want to refine all our metals on site… we want to have the entire value chain on site,” he said at the plant’s inauguration in the capital, Ouagadougou, on Monday.
Burkina Faso is one of Africa’s biggest gold producers but the authorities have struggled to regulate the informal mining sector, which has been blighted by jihadist violence.
Traoré’s government hopes the new facility can turn the landlocked country into a regional gold-refining hub.
With gold production on the rise, Traoré’s government set up a state-owned mining company two years ago.
Foreign mining firms are now required to give the state a 15 per cent stake in their operations and train local workers.
The World Gold Council said output rose by 17 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, helped by increased production at several mines.
But successive governments have struggled to regulate the country’s extensive artisanal and small-scale mining industry, where smuggling and informal trading have made it difficult for the authorities to account for all the gold produced.
The government has also alleged that some illegally traded gold helps finance the Islamist insurgency that has engulfed much of the country.
Burkina Faso has been fighting armed Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State for years, with large areas outside full government control.
The new refinery, known as Raffinor-BF, cost more than 11bn CFA francs ($19m; £14m), according to the presidency.
It said the project was financed by the state, including through the National Precious Metals Company (Sonasp), in partnership with Burkina Faso’s private sector.
The plant will initially be capable of refining 164 tonnes of gold a year, significantly more than the country’s current annual production.
The government says its eventual capacity could rise to 515 tonnes, suggesting it also wants the refinery to process gold from elsewhere in the region. –BBC
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