Burkina Faso inaugurates first gold refinery as it seeks to process more bullion domestically
Burkina Faso has inaugurated its first gold refinery in the capital Ouagadougou, marking a new step in the government's efforts to process more of the country's gold domestically and retain greater value from its mining sector.
President Ibrahim Traoré inaugurated the RAFFINOR-BF facility on Monday, Sept. 28, according to reports from the African Press Agency and Burkina Faso's Ministry of Mines. The refinery is located on a five-hectare site in the Ouaga 2000 district.
The facility has an initial processing capacity of up to 400 kilograms of gold per day, or about 150 tonnes a year, according to figures released by the mining ministry ahead of the inauguration. The refinery is designed to produce gold with a purity of up to 99.99%, equivalent to 24-carat gold.
The complex includes a gold foundry, an analysis laboratory, a secure storage facility and a jewellery unit. An administrative building is also expected to house the headquarters of the Société nationale des substances précieuses (SONASP), the state precious-metals company.
The project was launched in November 2023, when Traoré laid its foundation stone. At the time, the government said the refinery would help address the fact that gold produced in Burkina Faso was being refined outside the country. The original project was planned with a capacity of 150 tonnes per year.
The government says the facility is expected to create about 100 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs. The refinery is part of a broader policy aimed at increasing state involvement in the mining sector and developing local processing capacity.
Gold is one of Burkina Faso's main export commodities. According to figures released by the authorities, the country produced more than 94 tonnes of gold in 2025.
The refinery's opening comes as Burkina Faso has been restructuring its mining sector, including greater state participation in mining assets and the creation of state-owned mining company SOPAMIB. The country's 2024 Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report says the national gold refinery project was initially estimated at 7 billion CFA francs, excluding land costs, with a planned annual refining capacity of 150 tonnes.
The government has presented the refinery as part of its strategy to increase domestic value addition in the gold sector rather than exporting gold for processing abroad. The facility's inauguration therefore represents not only new processing infrastructure, but also an effort to capture more stages of the gold value chain within Burkina Faso.
