Guinea bans raw gold exports, mandates local refining before shipment

• Guinea will require all gold to be refined, certified, and processed domestically before export and will ban raw gold exports.

• Authorities will channel industrial and artisanal gold through the Nimba Gold Refinery, which is under development in Conakry.

• The move aligns Guinea with a broader West African trend toward local gold refining, although implementation details remain unclear.

• President Mamadi Doumbouya announced the end of raw gold exports on June 19 during a meeting with industrial, semi-industrial, and artisanal gold operators, as well as managers of gold purchasing centers.

“Guinean gold will be smelted, certified and processed in Guinea before being exported to international markets. Any operator that continues to export raw gold will have its license suspended and its mining contract terminated,” the Guinean president said.

📹 𝐑𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐝𝐞 𝐥’𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞́𝐞 : 𝐥𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞́𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞 𝐥𝐚 𝐑𝐞́𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞, 𝐒.𝐄. 𝐌𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐢 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐌𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐘𝐀, 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞 𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐩 𝐝𝐮 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞 𝐥’𝐨𝐫

🔗 https://t.co/VPrPd0ASsi

DCI-PRG pic.twitter.com/BSc04oGwyP

— Présidence de la Guinée (@Presidence_gn) June 21, 2026

The measure marks the latest step in Guinea’s strategy to increase domestic processing of mineral resources. Several African governments have pursued similar policies as they seek to retain more value from mining production. Mali and Burkina Faso, for example, have launched projects to build gold refineries.

Although Guinea ranks among Africa’s leading bauxite producers rather than its largest gold producers, gold remains an important contributor to mining revenues. The sector also features extensive artisanal mining activity and complex trading networks that authorities struggle to monitor.

According to data from the Ministry of Mines and Geology, Guinea exported 19,946 kilograms of industrial gold in 2025 and 49,609 kilograms of artisanal gold during the same period. The country also serves as a transit hub for part of the gold produced in neighboring West African states.

Authorities said all of these volumes will now pass through the Nimba Gold Refinery, which is under installation in Gbessia, a district of the capital, Conakry.

The decision extends a policy that Guinea has already applied to other mineral resources. Since 2022, the government has pressed bauxite producers to honor commitments to local processing through the construction of alumina refineries. Authorities have also pursued a similar objective at the Simandou iron ore project, where they aim to process part of future iron production domestically through a steel plant or a pelletizing facility.

Photo: Présidence de la République de Guinée

Regional trend, but rules remain unclear

Guinea is not the first West African country to prioritize domestic gold refining. In Mali, authorities launched construction of a gold refinery near Bamako in 2025. Burkina Faso announced a similar project several years earlier. Niger, despite producing less gold than its partners in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), is also advancing a gold refinery project.

Meanwhile, Africa’s largest gold producer, the country of Ghana, already hosts several gold refineries and seeks to process a greater share of its production locally. The country of Côte d’Ivoire, where gold output has risen rapidly in recent years, also announced plans last year to build a gold refinery. However, neither Accra nor Abidjan has announced a blanket ban on raw gold exports comparable to the measure unveiled by Conakry.

That distinction highlights the main challenge facing Guinea. While the announcement establishes a clear policy direction, the government has not yet disclosed implementation details. Authorities still need to define the timetable for enforcement, identify the categories of producers affected, clarify obligations for industrial and artisanal operators, and determine whether transition periods or exemptions will apply.

Source: Ecofin