Burkina Faso is rapidly tightening its grip on one of Africa’s most valuable industries as the military-led government pushes to reduce foreign dominance over the country’s gold sector.
The West African nation, one of the continent’s leading gold producers, has spent the past three years restructuring mining ownership in what authorities describe as a drive for “economic sovereignty.”
By the end of 2025, six of Burkina Faso’s 15 active industrial gold mines were majority-owned by Burkinabe companies, according to specialised mining outlet Mines Actu Burkina. Three of those mines are now directly controlled by the state through the Burkina Faso Mining Participation Company (SOPAMIB).
According to APANews, the shift marks a major break from decades of foreign-led control over Burkina Faso’s industrial mining sector, where multinational companies historically dominated production and profits.
President Ibrahim Traoré has increasingly framed control of natural resources as central to the country’s political and economic agenda. During the launch of a national gold refinery project in 2023, he declared that Burkina Faso intended “to extract gold ourselves.”
