Burkina Faso Opens First Gold Refinery as Traoré Moves to End Raw Mineral Exports

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Burkina Faso has inaugurated its first industrial gold refinery, with transitional leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré declaring that the country wants to process its mineral resources domestically rather than export them in raw form.

Traoré officially opened the Raffinerie Nationale d’Or du Burkina Faso (RAFFINOR-BF) on Monday, September 28, 2026, in the Ouaga 2000 district of Ouagadougou.

The refinery represents a major step in Burkina Faso’s efforts to increase domestic control over its gold industry and retain more of the economic value generated by its mineral resources.

Refinery can process up to 164 tonnes of gold annually

The facility was built on a five-hectare site at a cost of more than 11 billion CFA francs, equivalent to about $19 million.

It was financed mainly by the Burkinabe state through the National Precious Substances Company (SONASP), with contributions from private-sector partners.

RAFFINOR-BF has an initial annual processing capacity of 164 tonnes of gold, exceeding Burkina Faso’s reported gold production of about 94 tonnes in 2025.

A planned second phase is expected to increase the refinery’s capacity to 515 tonnes annually.

The facility is equipped to process doré gold from both industrial and artisanal mining operations and produce gold bars with purity of up to 99.99 per cent.

It also contains a foundry, an analysis laboratory, secure storage facilities and a jewellery production unit.

Officials expect the project to generate approximately 100 direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect jobs.

Traoré vows to keep mineral value in Burkina Faso

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Traoré said the refinery was part of a broader effort to establish the entire mineral value chain within Burkina Faso.

«“We want to refine all our metals on site… we want to have the entire value chain on site,”»

he said.

The first gold bars refined entirely within Burkina Faso were presented during the ceremony.

The government sees domestic refining as a way to gain greater control over the country’s gold production while potentially increasing revenue from processing, refining and related activities.

Gold dominates Burkina Faso’s exports

Gold is by far one of Burkina Faso’s most important sources of export revenue, making the mining sector central to the country’s economy.

The new refinery comes as Traoré’s administration pursues wider reforms aimed at increasing state involvement in the mining industry, including changes to the country’s mining framework.

The government has also sought to increase the country’s participation in the value chain rather than relying primarily on the export of mineral commodities for processing elsewhere.

The refinery is therefore being presented as part of a broader push for greater economic sovereignty over Burkina Faso’s natural resources.

West Africa seeks greater control over mineral wealth

Burkina Faso’s move comes amid wider efforts by several African countries to capture a larger share of the value generated by their natural resources.

Rather than exporting minerals for processing abroad, governments across the region have increasingly explored domestic refining and processing facilities as a way of developing local industries, creating employment and increasing government revenues.

With RAFFINOR-BF now operational, Burkina Faso has the capacity to refine its own gold domestically and could potentially process gold from neighbouring countries in the future.

The inauguration marks a significant development in the country’s mining strategy as the government seeks to move beyond simply extracting and exporting raw mineral resources.