OUAGADOUGOU- Burkina Faso opened its first gold refinery on Monday, seeking to retain more income from its mineral resources by processing gold within the country.
President Captain Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated the facility, known as RAFFINOR-BF, in the capital, Ouagadougou.
The government said the investment exceeded 11 billion CFA francs, with financing mobilised through the National Precious Substances Company, SONASP, and domestic private partners.
The opening comes as West African gold producers invest in refining facilities to capture business that has traditionally gone to overseas processors.
Capacity to refine 164 tonnes annually
According to the government, the plant has an initial refining capacity of 164 tonnes of gold a year.
Authorities envisage an eventual expansion to 515 tonnes, although the inauguration statement did not provide a timetable.
Traoré said the country wanted to move beyond extraction and develop the skills and infrastructure needed to process its metals locally.
“We want to refine all our metals locally,” he said, according to the presidency’s account of his remarks, translated from French.
The complex occupies a five-hectare site in the Ouaga 2000 district.
It includes a foundry, an analysis laboratory, secure storage and a jewellery-making unit, according to the African Press Agency.
The agency reported that the facility can produce gold with a purity of up to 99.99 per cent.
From extraction to local processing
The refinery’s opening follows the laying of its foundation stone on November 23, 2023.
The project is also expected to create employment.
The mining ministry has projected 100 direct jobs and more than 5,000 indirect jobs, according to regional news outlet Ouestaf.
Those figures are forecasts, rather than confirmed employment totals.
Authorities say their longer-term ambition is to process gold from both industrial and artisanal producers and establish Burkina Faso as a refining centre serving West Africa.
West African producers pursue refining business
Burkina Faso’s investment forms part of a wider regional drive to retain more of the economic activity associated with gold.
In June, Guinea announced plans to become a regional refining hub and banned exports of unrefined gold.
Ghana and Mali have also pursued domestic refining projects, Reuters reported.
The expansion brings questions about how competing facilities will attract sufficient supplies and offer commercially competitive services.
Guinea’s Mines Minister Bouna Sylla told Reuters in June that the success of such plants would depend on their economics.
“If your refinery is not competitive, it will fail or succeed because of economics, not politics,” he said.
