Guinea is positioning itself as a regional gold refining hub, joining a growing drive by West African producers to process bullion locally rather than exporting it to refineries in the Middle East and elsewhere, its mines minister said.
The move reflects a broader effort across the region to capture more value from soaring gold prices by expanding domestic refining capacity and developing downstream industries.
“If each West African country has a refinery, there is no problem,” Mines Minister Bouna Sylla told Reuters over the weekend.
“If your refinery is not competitive, it will fail or succeed because of economics, not politics,” he said.
The comments come days after President Mamady Doumbouya banned raw gold exports with immediate effect, as the world’s leading bauxite producer seeks to retain a greater share of the value generated by its mineral wealth.
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One of Africa’s largest refineries
Sylla said Guinea has completed construction of a new gold refinery capable of processing production from across West Africa, describing it as one of the largest on the continent.
Bangaly Steve Toure, deputy head of Guinea’s Mining Investment Fund, said the $30 million facility will initially process 530 metric tonnes (about 17 million ounces) of gold annually, with capacity expected to rise to 733 tonnes once fully operational. Commercial production is scheduled to begin in July after final regulatory approvals.
The project comes as Africa’s largest gold producer, Ghana, alongside Mali and Burkina Faso, also seeks to establish itself as a regional refining centre to capture more value from gold production.
Guinea’s industrial gold sector is dominated by AngloGold Ashanti and Nordgold. West Africa produced an estimated 11 million ounces of gold in 2025, according to industry estimates.
Sylla said Guinea produced about 2.32 million ounces of gold last year, valued at around US$7 billion, but retained less than 1 percent of that value domestically because most of the metal was exported for refining abroad.
“It is not just about revenue and jobs,” he said. “Countries like the UAE do not produce gold but built refining capacity to stimulate broader economic growth. We want to create the same value chain.”
Guinea is drafting a decree to promote domestic refining and plans reforms aimed at formalising artisanal mining and improving gold traceability by 2026, Sylla and Toure said.
The refinery, developed under a public-private partnership, forms part of Guinea’s broader strategy to expand mineral processing industries, following similar efforts to increase local value addition in its bauxite sector.
