Sahel countries produce significant quantities of gold. Much of the economic benefit stays local—circulating through communities near mining sites. What's missing is the infrastructure to capture value at the national level: reserves, low-cost financing, coordinated reinvestment.
Between 2020 and 2024, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad produced an estimated 850–1,050 tons of gold—worth $70–85 billion at current prices. The wide range reflects uncertainty in artisanal production, much of which goes unrecorded.
Artisanal mining is widespread and deeply rooted in local economies. Rather than working against this reality, effective policy works with it—creating conditions where formal participation becomes the path of least resistance for miners. The question is whether there's a policy sequence that could redirect the flow—keeping gold within national economies and converting it into development capital.