The Five African Gold Export Giants in 2025: Leaders, Challenges & the Why Behind Nigeria’s Absence
Gold continues to shine not just as a precious metal but as a powerful driver of GDP, foreign exchange earnings, and political leverage in Africa. In 2025, several African nations have consolidated or improved their status among the top gold exporters—led by reformers, long‐standing mining powers, and countries finally reforming their artisanal mining sectors.
Below are five African countries exporting the most gold in 2025, key recent developments affecting their golden trade, and why Nigeria is not yet on that list (mainly due to smuggling and informal production).
1. South Africa
Export Value & Volume: As of the 2024–25 period, South Africa remains Africa’s largest exporter by value with gold exports of about US$8.17 billion.
Strengths & Issues: Its historic mining infrastructure, established industrial mines, processing capacity, and export channels allow it to retain advantage. But challenges are mounting: deepening ore bodies, increasing cost of extraction, regulatory and labor disruptions. Still, its value-export strength keeps it in the lead.
2. Ghana
Recent Surge: Ghana has been on an upward trajectory, with reforms to formalize and regulate gold trading, particularly for artisanal and small-scale miners. In early to mid-2025, Ghana earned ~US$5–6 billion from gold exports in just several months—approaching or exceeding 2024’s full‐year numbers.
Policy Moves: Among its recent measures: the establishment of GoldBod (Ghana Gold Board) to regulate licensing, make traceability mandatory, improve aggregation, crackdown on smuggling. Also launched a national task force in mid-2025 to address gold smuggling losses.
Export Share: In 2024, gold exports for Ghana surged to approximately US$11.6 billion, an increase of over 50% from 2023. Gold accounted for well over half of Ghana’s export revenues.
3. Mali
Production & Exports: Mali remains a heavyweight among exporters of gold. Its production is estimated at around 85 metric tonnes (for 2024–25), with gold representing a large share of its total export earnings.
Challenges: Nonetheless, political instability, disputes with international mining firms, and the informal nature of many small-scale mines complicate consistent export-value growth.
4. Burkina Faso
Role & Output: With production estimated around 60-70 tonnes of gold in recent periods, Burkina Faso continues to be a major exporter. Much of its national export revenue is tied to gold.
Recent Trends: The government is increasing efforts to build refining capacity domestically (e.g. setting up SOPAMIB) and improve regulatory systems to reduce leakage, fraud, and smuggling. These efforts help solidify its ranking among Africa’s top gold exporters.
5. Tanzania
Growing Influence: Tanzania is rising steadily. In the year ending August 2025, its gold exports were approximately US$4.32 billion, significantly up from the previous year.
Export Composition: The contribution of both large industrial mines and growing artisanal/small-scale mining sectors is important. Improvements in export procedures, combined with favorable global gold prices, have supported its growth.
Why Nigeria is Not on the List
Nigeria has substantial gold reserves and artisanal mining activity, but it suffers from severe smuggling and informal extraction issues, which prevent official export volumes from reflecting actual production. Some recent findings:
A report by Swissaid found that the amount of gold smuggled out of Nigeria is three times its recorded/official production. For example, in 2022 the study estimated ~15,000 kilograms (15 tonnes) were smuggled, versus about 5,000 kg declared.
More broadly, the Swissaid study estimates 321-474 tonnes of gold produced via artisanal and small-scale mining across Africa go undeclared annually, with a value between US$24-35 billion. Nigeria is one of the more heavily affected by this “loss” of export-potential due to smuggling.
Thus, although Nigeria produces gold, much of it does not enter legal export channels; this reduces its official export numbers, keeping it out of the top exporters list despite having potential.
Recent Developments That Could Shift the Rankings
Traceability and Reforms: Countries like Ghana are tightening traceability, licensing, and centralizing small-scale and artisanal miner exports. If other nations follow suit, illegal flows may shrink, and official numbers might rise.
Gold Price Volatility: Rising gold prices globally make gold exports even more lucrative, encouraging both legal production and illegal smuggling.
Value Addition Push: Some exporting countries are pushing to refine more gold domestically (rather than exporting raw gold), which can increase the value retained and elevate export revenues. Mali’s refinery projects, or Ghana’s plans for certified assay labs, are examples.
In 2025, the top exporters of African gold—measured by both value and volume—are South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania. Governments in these countries are increasingly aware that formalizing artisanal mining, reducing smuggling, improving traceability, and encouraging domestic refining can meaningfully increase export figures, revenue, and economic stability.
Nigeria’s absence from this leading group is not for lack of gold, but due to a mismatch between actual production (much of it artisanal/informal) and official exports (which are low because of smuggling and weak formalization). Changes similar to those Ghana is implementing could enable Nigeria to climb into the top ranks—but that will require policy, enforcement, and supply-chain transparency.
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