Burkina Faso’s Captain Traore Opens First Gold Refinery, Vows “Our Gold Will No Longer Create Value For Others”

Burkina Faso’s junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has opened the country’s first gold refinery as his military-led government moves to keep mining profits at home and tighten control over one of its most important industries.

The 38-year-old army captain, who seized power in a coup in September 2022, inaugurated the refinery known as Raffinor-BF in the capital, Ouagadougou, on Monday.

“We want to refine all our metals on site… we want to have the entire value chain on site,” Traoré said at the ceremony, where he was pictured holding up a gold bar in his gloved hand.

The plant cost more than 11 billion CFA francs — about $19 million dollars, which is roughly N28.5 billion in Nigerian Naira — and was financed by the state through the National Precious Metals Company, Sonasp, in partnership with the private sector.

According to the presidency, the refinery will initially be capable of refining 164 tonnes of gold a year, significantly more than the country’s current annual production, with an eventual capacity of 515 tonnes as it aims to become a regional hub refining gold from other West African countries.

“This is the day we take back the keys to our own house. Our gold will no longer be used to create added value for others while our people remain in need,” Mines Minister Yacouba Zabré Gouba said.

Burkina Faso is one of Africa’s biggest gold producers but has struggled to regulate its informal mining sector, which has been blighted by jihadist violence and smuggling that the government says helps finance Islamist insurgency.

The new refinery is part of Traoré’s wider nationalist economic agenda to end reliance on exporting raw materials for processing abroad.

Under his government, foreign mining firms are now required to give the state a 15% stake and train local workers, while exports of gold produced by artisanal miners were suspended in 2024.

The move comes as other West African countries also push for domestic refining. Guinea and Ghana have restricted exports of unrefined gold, Mali is building its first refinery with help of a Russian firm, and Ivory Coast plans to open its own next year.

Gold production in Burkina Faso rose by 17% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, according to the World Gold Council, amid historically high international prices.

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