By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, October 27 (Radarr Africa) – Zambia has unveiled its first domestic gold refinery, a facility developed by Minera Refineries Zambia Limited that is meant to add value locally, formalise artisanal mining and reduce reliance on copper exports, BusinessDay reported.
The refinery was presented on October 25 at the Mining and Investment Insaka in Lusaka, according to the newspaper. The company says it can refine gold to about 99 per cent purity, and that its equipment and laboratory are capable of 99.99 per cent.
Andrew Mukupa Katandula, managing director of Minera Refineries Zambia, has outlined a two-year plan to formalise artisanal gold mining, offer targeted pre-financing to miners and improve transparency in gold production and trade, BusinessDay reported. Mines Minister Paul Kabuswe said 1,201 gold-related artisanal mining licences have been issued since 2023, the newspaper said.
The paper reported that the company projects the initiative could generate more than $1.8 billion, a figure it attributed to the Zambian Observer, without stating the period or assumptions behind it. Discovery Alert, an analysis site, described the figure as a projected value tied to formalising artisanal and small-scale gold, and said it is “not a valuation, construction cost or demonstrated revenue.” It said the ownership of the facility and its build cost have not been disclosed, and that throughput and accreditation details were also not disclosed.
Copper made up 66 per cent of Zambia’s goods exports in 2024, worth about $7.5 billion, according to US Geological Survey data cited by BusinessDay. Gold contributed about 2 per cent, or $262 million. Official gold output, excluding doré, was 3,141.81 kilogrammes in 2024, against a government target of 18,000 kilogrammes for 2025 under the Export Diversification Strategy, the newspaper said.
BusinessDay said the main challenge is securing enough gold from miners to run the refinery commercially. It noted that the Bank of Zambia had bought 3,051.3 kilogrammes of gold worth $396.3 million by the end of September 2025, which creates competition for locally produced gold. Supply also depends on the prices offered to miners, prompt payment and access to working capital, the paper said. It added that the company says gold sourced from Mpika achieved high purity levels and attracted buyer interest.
The newspaper cautioned that the benefits are not guaranteed. In its words, “refining capacity alone cannot guarantee those gains,” and the outcome will depend on whether the refinery can source, process and sell enough gold and whether the income reaches miners and the wider economy.
Zambia is not alone in the push. BusinessDay said Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia have opened or announced gold and precious metals refining projects. Discovery Alert reported that the DRC’s Kalemie refinery launched on March 11, 2026, that Burkina Faso’s RAFFINOR-BF was inaugurated on September 28, 2026, and that Ethiopia’s Bole Lemi refineries were inaugurated on October 10, 2026.
In May, Zambia’s state-controlled ZCCM Investments Holdings formed a joint venture, Kyalo Goldfields, with Mining Mineral Resources, a company headquartered in the DRC, Miningmx reported on May 19. ZCCM-IH holds 51 per cent. The venture operates in the Kikonge area of North-Western Province, which was overrun by a gold rush that began in mid-2025 before security forces cleared artisanal miners from the site, the report said. Miningmx said Zambia and the DRC both want to capture more value from a gold trade long linked to smuggling, which has cost governments tax revenue.
BusinessDay’s related coverage mentions a planned gold exchange-traded fund on the Zambian exchange, a fall in inflation to an eight-year low and an interest rate cut to 10.75 per cent.
