Burkina Faso has opened its first gold refinery in the capital, Ouagadougou, as the government seeks to process more of the country’s mineral resources locally.

Table Of Content

State and private-sector partnership
Push to retain more value locally
Security and economic pressures

Captain Ibrahim Traore inaugurated the National Gold Refinery of Burkina Faso, known as RAFFINOR-BF, on Monday. The presidency described the opening as a significant step in the country’s pursuit of economic independence.

State and private-sector partnership

According to the presidency, the facility was financed by the state in partnership with Burkina Faso’s domestic private sector. Construction began in 2023, and the project reportedly cost 11 billion CFA francs, equivalent to $19 million.

RAFFINOR-BF has an annual capacity of 164 tonnes of gold, while its projected long-term capacity could reach up to 515 tonnes. Those figures refer to the refinery’s processing capacity rather than confirmed production volumes.

The World Gold Council describes Burkina Faso as Africa’s third-largest gold producer. The country produced more than 94 tonnes of gold in the previous year, according to the council.

Push to retain more value locally

The refinery is part of efforts to better organise the commercialisation of gold and reduce reliance on exporting unprocessed minerals. Traore said the country wanted to move beyond extracting raw materials for shipment abroad.

“Our ambition is no longer to be a country that simply extracts and ships its raw materials abroad,” the presidency quoted him as saying. “We want to refine all our metals locally… we want to have the entire value chain here.”

Burkina Faso suspended exports of gold from informal mining in 2024. Mines Minister Yacouba Zabre Gouba said the measure was intended to help “better organise” the sector.

Authorities have faced longstanding difficulties controlling informal gold mining, which has been linked in the source report to smuggling and violence involving jihadist groups. Traore has also warned that large quantities of gold were leaving the country “fraudulently” and that this “helps to fuel terrorism.”

Security and economic pressures

Burkina Faso is battling jihadist groups that, according to the report, control large parts of the country and carry out attacks. A civilian volunteer force has been mobilised to support the military.

The government has also pursued greater domestic industrial output in sectors including cotton, tomatoes and textiles. The refinery adds gold processing to those broader efforts to retain more economic value inside Burkina Faso.

Gold prices have reached record levels in recent months, while the metal’s trade in the Sahel region has also been associated with trafficking, including trafficking linked to jihadist groups. The government’s refinery project is therefore intended to serve both economic and oversight objectives, although its stated production figures are capacity targets rather than evidence of current output.