Another African country tightens grip on its gold sector after up to $3.8 billion in annual exports go undeclared
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.
The report also estimated that Mali produced around 300 metric tonnes of undeclared gold worth $13.5 billion between 2012 and 2022, suggesting the country has been losing billions of dollars in export earnings and tax revenues for more than a decade.
The new regulator is the latest measure in a sweeping overhaul of Mali’s mining industry.
Since adopting a new mining code in 2023, the military-led government has increased taxes on miners, expanded state ownership in mining projects from 20% to at least 35%, strengthened oversight of mining operations and launched audits that recovered about 761 billion CFA francs ($1.2 billion) in unpaid revenues from mining companies.
Those reforms also triggered a prolonged dispute with Canadian miner Barrick Mining, whose Loulo-Gounkoto complex, Mali’s biggest gold mine, was caught in a two-year standoff over the new rules before both sides reached a settlement.
Analysts say the creation of the new agency signals that Mali is extending its reform agenda beyond industrial mining to the largely informal artisanal sector, where oversight has remained weak despite the industry’s growing contribution to national production.
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