00:00Bukina Faso opened its first gold refinery, pushing ahead with plans to better organize the commercialization of the precious metal
00:08in one of the continent's top producers.
00:11Under Captain Ibrahim Traore, who sees power in 2022 coup, Bukina Faso has nationalized several gold mines and launched a
00:19push to revitalize the country's industrial output from cotton to metals and textile.
00:26The inauguration of this plant is a powerful symbol, as you have said, whether it is gold, manganese, copper, zinc
00:32or any other metal.
00:33Our ambition is no longer to be just a country that extracts and sends its raw materials abroad.
00:39We want to refine all our metals locally.
00:42For everything related to extractive industries, we want to have the entire value chain here at home.
00:47The National Gold Refinery of Bukina Faso, which has been under construction since 2023, has an annual production capacity of
00:55164 tons of gold, rising to a projected long-term capacity of up to 515 tons.
01:02The refinery, which costs $19 million to build, was funded by the stated partnership with the domestic-private sector.