Tanzania has joined the growing list of African nations pushing to take greater control of their gold resources by mandating that large-scale miners process and trade at least twenty percent of their gold domestically.
This move places the East African country alongside others in the region aiming to capture more value from their natural resources and assert greater authority over their mining sectors.
The policy aligns with a gold bill passed in September 2024 and signals a broader trend toward resource nationalism as governments seek to benefit more directly from surging global gold prices.
Tanzania’s mining regulator has issued a rule requiring exporters to allocate no less than twenty percent of their gold output for smelting, refining, and trading within the country.
Finance Minister Mwigulu Nchemba emphasized this mandate during his 2025-26 budget speech, underscoring the urgency of finalizing the policy within the next thirty days amid volatile commodity markets.
Major mining companies such as AngloGold Ashanti Plc and Barrick Gold Corporation, the world’s second-largest gold producer, are among those directly affected by this directive, according to Bloomberg.
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Similarly, Burkina Faso has accelerated efforts to reclaim control over its gold industry.
In June 2025, the country formally transferred ownership of five gold mining assets to its state-owned mining corporation, SOPAMIB, following a decree issued by junta leader Ibrahim Traoré nearly a year after initial steps began in August 2023.
This handover marks a decisive shift toward full government management and operation of Burkina Faso’s key mining sectors.
These recent developments highlight an intensifying trend across Africa, where governments are demanding increased ownership, value addition, and regulatory control over extractive industries long dominated by multinational firms.
Historically, these companies have exported raw minerals with minimal local beneficiation or economic benefit.
Burkina Faso has emerged as one of Africa’s leading gold producers over the past twenty years, ranking fourth after Ghana, South Africa, and Sudan.
Gold accounts for over seventy percent of its export earnings and remains the backbone of the country’s economy.
The moves by Tanzania and Burkina Faso reflect broader continental ambitions to maximize the economic benefits of mineral wealth amid shifting global dynamics and commodity price surges.
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