Guinea’s president announces ban on raw gold exports

Guinean President Mamadi Doumbouya announced a ban on raw gold exports, in an effort to boost local processing of the metal and help the domestic economy.

Doumbouya made the announcement during a meeting with industrial and artisanal gold producers as well as gold buying offices operating in the West African nation.

“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 during the meeting, which was subsequently broadcast on state-owned Radio Télévision Guinéenne.

“I am putting an end to that starting today,” he said. “Guinea will now require its gold to be processed within its own borders. Raw gold will no longer leave Guinea.”

Guinea, the world’s biggest bauxite producer, is also home to significant gold reserves which are exploited by industrial companies such as Société Aurifère de Guinée, an unit of AngloGold Ashanti, as well as two semi-industrial firms and hundreds of artisanal producers.

Combined gold exports from these operators totaled 22,142 kilograms in the first quarter of this year, according the Ministry of Mines and Geology. Guinea is Africa’s sixth largest gold producer, according to the World Gold Council.

Doumbouya said gold will only be exported after being refined into ingots at a newly built facility in Conakry, the capital.

“Guinean gold will be melted, certified, and processed in Guinea before being exported to international markets”, he said. “Any operator who continues to export raw gold will have their license suspended and their mining agreement terminated.”

(By Ougna Camara)