Guinean President Doumbouya Inaugurates Nimba Gold Refinery

On 1 November 2026, Guinea’s President Mamadi Doumbouya officially inaugurated the Nimba Gold Refinery in Gbessia Cité, located near the international airport in the capital, Conakary. Other than being the first gold refinery in Guinea, it is also one of Africa’s largest gold refineries, with a processing capacity of 2,300 kilograms of gold per day, equivalent to 733 tonnes per year.

The facility uses state-of-the-art modular technology and can operate continuously on a 24/7 basis, boosting its daily processing capacity up to 4,000 kilograms. The refinery produces certified gold with a four-nines 99.99% purity. As part of the pilot phase, the refinery shipped its first gold ingots o 9 October 2026.

To promote Local Value Addition, the Government of Guinea banned the export of gold ore and now requires all gold to be refined and certified locally before export. The Central Bank of Guinea has a priority purchase option of 30% of the refinery’s output.

President Doumbouya underscored that the advent of the first gold refinery is part of the #Simandou2040 national development plan. The stated objective is to graduate from an extractive export model toward local beneficiation to promote local jobs, technology transfer, and good governance of the mining supply chain to break out of the ‘mineral curse’. Guinea now joins the growing list of African countries, including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, to have its own gold refinery.