Africa accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s gold output, yet only around a tenth of that metal is refined there: most of it leaves the continent unprocessed, with the value added built up elsewhere. The continent is now looking to process more of it at home, to keep that wealth within its own borders.
How much gold does Africa actually mine?
Africa accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s gold output, yet only around a tenth of that metal is refined there.
If you’re wondering how much weight the continent carries in world gold production, the answer comes down to a single figure: Africa accounts for nearly a quarter of global output. A mining powerhouse, far from the image of a secondary resource it’s sometimes given.
But mining is not the same as processing. That sizeable share of extraction isn’t matched on the processing side: Africa’s gold-refining industry handles only around a tenth of it. The gold therefore leaves African soil in its raw state, before its value is built up elsewhere.
Why is so little of this gold refined locally?
The African continent accounts for a sizeable share of the world’s gold mining: nearly a quarter of all the gold produced worldwide comes from Africa. Yet that leading position in extraction isn’t matched in processing the metal: Africa’s refining industry remains marginal, far from matching the scale of the volume mined on the continent.
The gap shows up in the numbers: only around a tenth of this gold is processed in Africa itself. Most of the value added (the value created when raw ore becomes refined metal) therefore escapes the continent that mined it, and is built up elsewhere.
What is the continent trying to change?
The continent is reportedly seeking to process more of its raw metal at home, rather than exporting it unrefined. Only around a tenth of this metal is currently processed on the continent, with the rest sent elsewhere to be refined. This imbalance denies producing countries part of the value added that is created beyond their borders.
Keeping that processing at home would mean capturing more of the wealth created by this resource, instead of letting it form downstream, far from where it was mined. Yet Africa accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s gold output, while its processing industry remains marginal.
Keeping at home the value created by refining, rather than watching it build up elsewhere: that is the whole stake. Growing this industry on the continent would turn an underground resource into lasting wealth, rooted where the metal was pulled from the ground.
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