Ethiopia has opened its first gold refinery to increase earnings from its mineral resources and offer African producers an alternative to processing their gold overseas, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has announced.
Abiy inaugurated the National Precious Metals Refinery on Saturday at the Bole Lemi Special Economic Zone in the capital, Addis Ababa. The $50 million venture is majority owned by the Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) and Dubai-based Sam Precious Metals.
The facility can process more than 600 metric tons of precious metals annually and has “the capacity to serve not only Ethiopia but also the broader East African and pan-African markets,” Abiy wrote on X on Saturday. It is intended to boost export earnings, create skilled jobs, support the jewelry industry, and serve East African and wider African markets, he said.
“It enables neighboring countries and regional mining companies to bring their gold to Ethiopia for advanced refining, certification, value addition, and sale, eliminating the need to export it outside the continent,” he added.
The launch came five days after Abiy was reelected for another five-year term, pledging to continue economic reforms, advance major infrastructure projects, and defend Ethiopia’s national interests.
Gold is a major source of foreign exchange for Ethiopia, generating $5.6 billion last year, according to government figures. Abiy said African countries have long exported raw materials cheaply while importing finished products at substantially higher prices.
African leaders have increasingly demanded local mineral processing and rejected a repeat of colonial-style resource extraction as Western powers seek greater access to critical minerals. Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama took that message to the UN General Assembly last month, warning that Africa would not remain a “passive arena for a new scramble for resources.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa similarly told the BRICS Business Forum in New Delhi last month that Africa must reject a future of supplying minerals while “value addition and manufacturing take place elsewhere.”
Ghana has required licensed self-financing gold aggregators to refine their gold locally before export since September 1. Burkina Faso opened its first gold refinery, Raffinor-BF, on September 28 as the transitional authorities seek greater economic sovereignty after cutting ties with traditional Western partners. DR Congo, where the US brokered a peace deal tied to access to critical minerals, has banned copper and cobalt concentrate exports to encourage domestic processing. Zimbabwe has introduced lithium concentrate export quotas and required producers to commit to building local processing plants ahead of a planned January 2027 ban on concentrate exports.