A joint refinery project in Mali aims to quadruple local output and meet global standards

Mali's government will partner with the Russian Yadran Group to establish a state-owned gold refinery aimed at increasing national revenues from bullion production, Reuters reported on Friday, citing the West African country's economy and finance minister.

According to Alousseni Sanou, the joint company SOROMA-SA will be majority-owned by the Malian state with a 62% stake, while Yadran will hold the remaining shares.

He said the facility would be constructed on a five-hectare site near the international airport in the capital, Bamako and is expected to process up to 200 metric tons of gold annually, almost four times Mali's current capacity of roughly 50 tons.

The country's transitional legislative body approved the shareholding structure earlier last week, the officials said, adding that the new firm will support miners in meeting new requirements introduced by the revised mining code.

The Sahel state is Africa's second-largest gold producer, according to latest report by the World Gold Council. In 2023, Bamako's new leadership, which came to power after a 2020 coup, introduced a revised mining code allowing the government to claim up to a 30% stake in new projects in an effort to boost state revenues amid rising gold prices.

The move, which aligns with similar policies adopted by governments in neighboring Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Niger, also seeks to raise gold royalties and mandate domestic gold processing. Mali currently exports most of its raw gold due to limited refining capacity. Bamako's Mines Ministry reportedly stated that the country's two existing refineries lack international certifications, such as from the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), which restricts access to global markets.

On Friday, Reuters cited a senior official from the Malian Mines Ministry as saying that the partnership with Russia's Yadran is intended to help Bamako secure certification and comply with international trading standards.

The Malian-Russian refinery project is being launched amid escalating tensions in recent months between military-led governments in the Sahel and Western mining companies.

Late last month, Canadian company Barrick Mining appealed to the World Bank's arbitration tribunal to resolve a legal dispute with Mali, where it risks losing control of its gold operations. Barrick holds an 80% stake in the country's Loulo-Gounkoto mines, with the Malian government owning the remaining 20%. The mines, which produced nearly 700,000 ounces of gold in 2023, have been shut since January, after the government seized three tons of gold over alleged unpaid taxes, a claim Barrick denies.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Niger, French nuclear fuel company Oranolostits license to the Imouraren uranium mine in 2024, and later that year the military government seized its subsidiary, Somair.

(RT.com)