Guinea bans raw gold exports to force local processing

GUINEA’S military president Mamadi Doumbouya has ordered an immediate halt to raw gold exports, requiring all gold to be refined domestically before leaving the country, said Bloomberg News on Sunday.Doumbouya made the declaration at a gathering of industrial and artisanal miners and gold buying offices, which was later broadcast on state television. Guinea holds West Africa’s second-largest gold reserves, yet the metal has historically been shipped abroad unprocessed for refining, certification and sale, said the newswire.Going forward, gold must be smelted into ingots at a newly commissioned refinery in the capital, Conakry. Operators who continue exporting raw gold face licence suspension and termination of their mining agreements.Guinea is Africa’s sixth-largest gold producer, according to the World Gold Council, with output drawn from industrial operations — including Société Aurifère de Guinée, an AngloGold Ashanti unit — two semi-industrial companies, and hundreds of artisanal producers. Combined, these operators exported 22,142 kilograms of gold in the first quarter of this year, figures from the Ministry of Mines and Geology show.The country is better known internationally as the world’s leading bauxite producer, but its gold sector has grown in strategic importance. Doumbouya’s decree reflects a broader push by resource-rich African governments to capture more value from raw commodity exports rather than ceding processing margins to overseas refiners.“Guinean gold will be melted, certified, and processed in Guinea before being exported to international markets,” he said.The post Guinea bans raw gold exports to force local processing appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com