Guinea has banned the export of raw gold effective immediately, requiring all industrial and artisanal miners to process the precious metal domestically before shipping.
According to a Bloomberg report, Guinean President Mamadi Doumbouya announced the policy during a meeting with mining operators, gold purchasing offices and artisanal producers.
“Guinea has the second-largest gold reserves in West Africa, but its gold leaves the country daily in its raw state to be processed, certified, and sold elsewhere,” Doumbouya said in a gathering broadcast on state television.
“I am putting an end to that starting today,” Doumbouya further declared. “Guinea will now require its gold to be processed within its own borders. Raw gold will no longer leave Guinea.”
Under the new regulations, all extracted gold must be processed into ingots at a newly constructed refinery in Conakry, the capital city. The facility reportedly holds an annual refining capacity of 250 metric tons.
Guinea is Africa’s sixth largest gold producer and the world’s top producer of bauxite. Data from the World Gold Council shows that the country’s latest annual production of the yellow metal was 69.3 metric tons.
Doumbouya warned stakeholders that violators of the new framework will face immediate contract cancellations.
A broader wave of resource nationalism across the continent continues to grow as governments in Africa take steps to halt the outflow of unprocessed raw materials.
Tanzania and Uganda currently ban the export of unprocessed minerals, including gold and copper.
Ghana is scheduled to ban raw gold exports by 2030, while Zimbabwe has prohibited the export of raw lithium concentrates to spur local battery metals processing.
Gold mining and exploration in Guinea
While Guinea’s mining sector has historically focused on bauxite, foreign capital is now targeting its gold reserves.
The country is situated on the Birimian greenstone belt, a geological formation spanning West Africa that hosts massive orogenic gold systems. While neighboring Mali and Ghana have seen decades of systematic drilling along this belt, the Guinea portion remains relatively underexplored.
Production is currently led by Société Aurifère de Guinée, a unit of AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU,JSE:ANG), alongside several semi-industrial operations. However, a growing pipeline of junior exploration companies is actively defining new resource targets, primarily within Eastern Guinea’s Siguiri Basin.
Recent activity includes Predictive Discovery’s (ASX:PDI,OTCPL:PDIYF) Bankan project, seen as one of the region’s largest recent greenfield discoveries, and Sanu Gold’s (CSE:SANU,OTCQB:SNGCF) drilling in the Siguiri Basin.
Similarly, Asara Resources (ASX:AS1,OTCPL:GMRMF) is advancing the Kada gold project, which currently hosts a resource of approximately 923,000 ounces of gold, predominantly in oxide material. Volt Resources (ASX:VRC,OTCPL:VLTRF) announced last year that it was restarting work in Guinea.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
Editorial Disclosure: Asara Resoures is a client of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.