Burkina Faso seizes record $2.3m worth of gold

Burkinabe customs said on Wednesday they have arrested three suspected smugglers trying to export 28.6 kilogrammes (63 pounds) of gold worth $2.3 million to neighbouring Togo.

The suspects had carefully concealed the yellow metal in their clothes and were headed by bus to Lome, the capital of Togo, customs officials said in a statement.

Tipped off by "anonymous intelligence", Burkinabe customs officers on Tuesday followed their bus to the border and detained them in the southeastern city of Cinkanse.

Officers from the customs office in Bittou, northwest of Cinkanse, partnered with police for the "record seizure", the statement added.

Legal justification

"The suspects could not provide any legal justification regarding possession or transport of this valuable commodity," customs said.

A high-ranking Burkinabe police officer, who confirmed the bust, told AFP on condition of anonymity, that the suspects were still in custody and that they had "admitted to trafficking (the commodity) for a third party."

Burkina Faso, Africa's fourth-biggest gold producer, in February suspended exports of the precious metal from artisanal mines.

Mines Minister Yacouba Zabre Gouba said the government was looking "to clean up the sector and to better organise the commercialisation of gold and other precious minerals."

Artisanal mining

Gold is the country's largest export. The mining sector accounts for 14% of state revenue, according to figures from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

Burkina Faso has 17 industrial gold mines, but five are closed due to insurgency that spilled over from neighbouring Mali in 2015 and has left more than 17,000 civilians and soldiers dead.

Two million people have been displaced.

Authorities traditionally struggle to control the artisanal sector which the mines ministry says produces an additional 10 tonnes of gold a year.

Gold refinery

The government in November 2023 began to build the country's first gold refinery, with a planned annual production capacity of 150 tonnes of 99.99% pure gold – or about 400 kilogrammes a day.

In February 2023, military rulers seized 200 kilogrammes of gold produced by a subsidiary of Canadian firm Endeavour Mining, citing "public necessity."

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