Africa’s third-largest gold producer , Mali has launched a new state agency to regulate its sprawling artisanal gold industry after authorities uncovered major discrepancies between the country’s officially declared gold exports and the volumes recorded by importing countries, highlighting the scale of illicit trade draining billions of dollars from one of Africa’s largest gold producers.
The government said the newly created Malian Office of Precious Substances will centralise and oversee the trade of gold and other precious minerals, particularly from artisanal and small-scale miners, as Bamako steps up efforts to tighten state control over its most important export.
The move comes as Mali pursues one of Africa’s most aggressive mining reform programmes, seeking to recover lost revenues from a sector that underpins its economy while increasing the state’s share of mineral wealth.
According to the government, artisanal mining employs nearly 2 million people across 350 to 400 mining sites, but much of the gold produced never enters official export channels.
That informal trade has become increasingly costly. A 2024 report by Swiss NGO SWISSAID estimated that 30 to 57 metric tonnes of Malian gold are exported each year without being officially declared, representing between $1.98 billion and $3.77 billion in annual trade.
