West African gold: States regain control, but who will really benefit from the metal?

Refineries, mining codes, one-stop shops: from Ouagadougou to Accra, sovereignty over gold is becoming a major issue. It remains to be seen whether it will enrich the people and not just the inaugurations.

Gold is no longer just a source of revenue; it has become a matter of sovereignty. Throughout West Africa, governments are seeking to regain control of their gold sectors, and refineries are the most visible symbol of this. Burkina Faso inaugurated its refinery at the end of September. Guinea has just exported its first refined gold bars. Mali and Ivory Coast are making progress on their own projects.

The context is ripe: global demand for gold reached a record $193 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 74% year-on-year. When the metal soars, a question becomes vital for countries short of foreign currency: who captures the value?

Three models, one same logic

Burkina Faso: The State Owns and Refines Gold: Ouagadougou acquired the Wahgnion and Boungou mines and inaugurated RAFFINOR-BF on September 28. The refinery aims for an initial capacity of 400 kg of gold per day. A second facility is planned to increase the total capacity to 515 tons per year. The project cost 11 billion CFA francs, financed primarily by the state through SONASP. The stated ambition is to process all national production, both industrial and artisanal.

Read also: "Gold from Mali: Production reaches 23.5 tons in the first half of 2026"

Mali: The Mining Code's Power Struggle: The 2023 mining code increased state participation and opened the door to contract renegotiation. The Barrick case, the conflict with Resolute, and the resumption of abandoned assets like Yatela and Morila are the most difficult episodes. But Bamako also knows how to negotiate: the ten-year renewal of the Loulo permit, scheduled for early 2026, demonstrates that states want to reconcile regaining control with maintaining industrial production, on which their foreign exchange reserves depend.

Ghana: The State as Sole Buyer: Established in April 2025, GoldBod is the exclusive buyer and exporter of artisanal gold. The result: record artisanal production of 104 tonnes in 2025, surpassing that of large mines for the first time. Since September 1st, the gold purchased by aggregators must be refined locally before any export. Accra has also increased the share that large mines must sell to the central bank from 20% to 30%.

This has already been achieved

There are tangible results. The fight against smuggling, the requirement to use official channels, and local refining are bringing value and foreign currency back into public coffers. Ghana is proving that a state can regain control over a long-standing informal artisanal sector. And the principle that Africa should no longer export its raw gold for refining elsewhere is fundamentally sound.

What remains to be proven

Opacity : In Burkina Faso, since the state takeover, very little information has been released, whereas the former owner, a publicly traded company, regularly published its production figures and financial flows. At the end of 2025, the holder of a 1% royalty on Wahgnion claimed not to have received the payments due since the acquisition. Sovereignty without transparency does not guarantee that wealth will reach the people.

Smuggling: States are facing networks whose territorial reach, responsiveness, and flexibility are difficult to match. And serious refining requires hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

The flaws in the Ghanaian model: Even the flagship model is showing its limitations. The central bank governor acknowledged a decline in reserves and a pause in GoldBod exports since August. Controlling the supply chain is not enough: rigorous inventory management is also necessary.

Capital flight: International companies are redirecting their investments toward countries deemed more predictable: Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mauritania, and Senegal. In Senegal itself, contract audits launched by the new government are worrying some investors. The region is thus splitting between hardline sovereigntists and "attractive" countries, weakening any united African front against buyers.

Our Pan-African interpretation

The takeover is legitimate and historic, but it isn't measured by the number of inaugurations. It's measured by public revenue, published data, and jobs created. For now, the states have laid the groundwork. It's too early to say whether this will actually increase state revenue and transform the sector.

The real test lies elsewhere. Each state negotiates alone against multinationals well-versed in arbitration, and national refineries compete instead of complementing each other. As long as the ESA, ECOWAS, and the African Union fail to coordinate standards, traceability, and regional refining, sovereignty will remain fragmented. And gold will continue to fuel power struggles rather than empower the people.