Mali’s government has announced plans to establish a state-controlled gold refinery in partnership with Russian firm Yadran, in an effort to reduce export losses and boost earnings from the gold sector.

Finance Minister Alousseni Sanou said the new company, SOROMA-SA, will be 62% owned by the Malian government, while Yadran will hold the remaining 38%.

The refinery will be built on a five-hectare site near Bamako’s international airport and is expected to process up to 200 metric tons of gold annually, a sharp increase from Mali’s current processing capacity of about 50 tons, according to Reuters.

Although Mali is Africa’s second-largest gold producer, it currently lacks an internationally certified refinery.

The country’s two existing facilities do not meet the standards of global certification bodies such as the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), forcing gold to be refined abroad.

The planned facility will produce gold with 99.5% purity, meeting international certification requirements.

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Sanou said the refinery will help miners comply with the country’s revised mining code, which aims to increase state participation, raise royalty rates, and require that gold be refined domestically.

Similar reforms have been introduced in neighboring countries including Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea, where governments have also pushed to localize more of the mining value chain.

These shifts have raised concern among Western investors, while regional partnerships with Russia and China continue to grow.

Since the military took power in 2020, Mali’s transitional government has promised to reform the mining sector to ensure a greater share of gold revenues stays in the country.

The reforms are expected to boost annual government revenue by about $950 million, equivalent to nearly 20% of the national budget.

Construction of the refinery is scheduled to be officially launched later in June by Mali’s transitional president, Assimi Goita, according to a spokesperson from the Ministry of Mines.

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