In June 2025, Mali launched the construction of its first national gold refinery. This refinery is the result of a cooperation between Mali, the Russian company Yadran, and the Swiss Investment Company. With a maximum annual refining capacity of 200 tons, this plant will be operational in the coming months. It should be noted that Mali’s new mining code, adopted in 2023, requires mining companies to refine or process mining products in state-owned facilities.

Majority stake for the state in the new refinery

Until now, Mali’s gold was exported to the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, or Switzerland for refining. The only existing refinery in the country was private – Marena Gold – and focused primarily on refining artisanal gold production, which some estimate to be around 30 tons per year.

The Malian government will have a 62% stake in the new gold refining company under construction. Gold remains Mali’s main export product and its main source of public revenue, representing approximately 10% of GDP. In 2024, industrial production reached approximately 51 tons, a decrease compared to previous years.

The Mining Code

The adoption of a new mining code aimed to allow the country to benefit from its subsoil resources. The country is said to be among the top three gold producers on the African continent. This new mining code sets the maximum state share in mines at 30% but introduces a 5% stake for local investors and requires mining companies to deposit their profits into bank accounts in Mali. With this reform, the Malian government expects revenues of at least €762 million from mining each year. In addition, tax exemptions, which caused the state to lose €91 million each year, have been abolished.

The Barrick-Malian State Standoff

All this could partly explain the standoff between the Malian state and the Canadian company Barrick Mining. This company owns one of the world’s largest gold mining sites in western Mali, with an 80% stake, compared to the state’s 20%. The revised mining contract in Mali no longer guarantees the same benefits. For the government, this is part of a sovereigntist perspective on the economy, as is already being applied by the other two members of the AES, Niger and Burkina Faso. And the Malian Minister of Mines, Professor Amadou Keita, has declared : “Our resources are no longer going serve to enrich other peoples, but quite the contrary, our mineral resources will serve the development of our states.“.

The sovereignist dynamic in Africa.

The construction of the refinery is directly in line with this sovereignist dynamic in Mali. But beyond the AES countries, almost all African states are now engaged in this dynamic. In Gabon, for example, the country acquired its first gold processing plant in June 2023, with a gold refining capacity of 7 to 10 tons per year. Ghana, the leading gold producer on the African continent, also inaugurated its first refinery in August 2024, and the Ghanaian government is the majority shareholder. All production, more than 100 tons each year, will be refined on site. In January 2025, Guinea began construction of the Nimba Gold Refinery (NGR), a refinery that, once completed, will be ranked number one in Africa and the second largest in the world in terms of processing capacity.

The New African Vision

So, beyond Mali and the AES countries, Africa is increasingly committed to this vision: creating added value in raw materials locally in Africa. And this doesn’t just concern gold; we saw this with oil in Nigeria, where Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote built a mega-oil refinery, which has already brought significant benefits and advantages to the country, including ensuring energy security for Nigeria, reducing dependence on imports, and promoting economic growth.

There is therefore a wind of renewal blowing in Africa with this stated desire of countries to reaffirm their economic sovereignty. And this fight is going in the right direction, because economic development helps to better meet the needs of the population and therefore to pacify and resolve the problems of insecurity which are very often linked to the dissatisfaction of the basic elementary needs of the population.