TREE NEWS update: Ivory Coast plans to start operating a gold refinery in the first half of next year, Mining, Petroleum and Energy Minister Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly said Tuesday in Abidjan. State-linked Société Ivoirienne des Métaux Précieux (Simep) is expected to process up to 100 metric tons of gold a year, with refined output to be sold with assistance from New York financial services firm StoneX Group. The West African nation aims to become Africa’s largest gold producer by 2035.
Ivory Coast to Launch Gold Refinery in H1 2026, Targets Africa’s Top Producer Spot by 2035
AI take
This is less about refining capacity than about where value gets captured in West African gold. By keeping smelting and offtake in-country, Abidjan is testing whether a producer state can move up the chain rather than exporting raw ore. The pairing with a New York trading house is the tell: the model still leans on external distribution to reach buyers. Whether Simep actually runs at scale, and whether other regional producers follow, is the open question.
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