Burkina Faso inaugurated its first national gold refinery in Ouagadougou on Monday, with junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré presented with the first gold bar refined entirely within the country.
The facility, RAFFINOR-BF, can process 164 tonnes of gold a year in its initial phase, with plans to expand capacity to 515 tonnes. Construction of the plant began in late November 2023 and cost more than 11 billion CFA francs, about $19 million, financed by the Burkinabe state alongside domestic private investors, according to a presidential statement. The refinery converts doré gold, a semi-pure alloy produced at mine sites, into fine gold bars of 99.9% purity, built to what Xinhua reported were international standards.
Alongside the refining line, the site includes a foundry, an analysis laboratory, secure storage facilities and a jewellery-making workshop, extending the range of gold processing Burkina Faso can carry out domestically rather than sending material abroad.
Burkina Faso produced 94 tonnes of gold in 2025 from 15 industrial mines and several semi-mechanised operations, according to the country’s Ministry of Energy, Mines and Quarries. RAFFINOR-BF’s 164-tonne initial capacity already exceeds that figure, suggesting the government is positioning the refinery to draw in gold from beyond its own mines.
Officials have said they want the facility to develop into a regional refining hub, which would depend on attracting supply from neighbouring producers rather than relying solely on Burkina Faso’s domestic output. Gold has become Burkina Faso’s leading export, ahead of cotton, and the mining sector has grown steadily since 2009.
“We want to have the entire value chain on site,” Traoré said at the inauguration, adding that the country’s ambition was to stop being one that simply extracts raw materials for export. The presidency separately described the opening as a step toward economic independence.
The refinery forms part of a broader shift under Traoré, who took power in a September 2022 coup, toward greater state involvement in Burkina Faso’s mining sector. His government has also established a national gold reserve and has said some illegally traded gold in the country has helped finance armed groups operating in the Sahel, a concern that has fed into its push for tighter control over how gold is processed and marketed. The administration expects RAFFINOR-BF to create around 100 direct jobs and an estimated 5,000 indirect jobs, according to official figures.
The project also fits Traoré’s wider foreign policy realignment, which has seen Burkina Faso distance itself from France and the Economic Community of West African States while deepening ties with Russia, China and Turkey, and co-founding the Alliance of Sahel States with Mali and Niger.
Whether RAFFINOR-BF can attract enough gold, domestic or regional, to run near its expanded 515-tonne capacity will determine whether it becomes the processing hub the government envisions or operates well under capacity in its early years.
