Libreville, Friday June 14, 2024 (Infos Gabon) – As part of its future projects, Gabon aims to increase very quickly in order to constitute a strategic gold reserve. This will likely strengthen its credibility on international markets.
In the meantime, we look at the latest data from the Ministry of the Economy, and these indicate that in 2023, exports of raw gold have decreased significantly from 43.9 billion CFA francs in 2022 to only 8.5 billion CFA francs, a drop of 80.7% which reveals the impact of the commissioning of the country’s first gold refinery, the Raffinerie Gabonaise d’Or (RGO) inaugurated on June 2, 2023.
Roughly speaking, the decline in raw gold exports in 2023 suggests that Gabon is making progress toward its goals of reducing exports of unprocessed raw materials. And this, in accordance with its strategy of local development of natural resources.
Worse, at the Société Equatoriale des Mines (SEM), it is reported that gold production in Gabon remains modest, amounting to only two (2) tonnes per year, mainly from the processing of alluvial gold.
It should be remembered that the RGO operates with a capacity of 7 to 10 tonnes of gold per year. It was supposed to allow Gabon to locally valorize its raw gold, previously exported as is, due to lack of processing capacity on site.
Under the old regime, measures were taken. They aimed, according to the authorities, to support local gold refining.
END/INFOSGABON/PM/2024
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