This dynamic follows a spectacular increase recorded between 2024 and 2025, with volumes shipped through channels controlled by the public administration rising from 770.3 kilograms to 7.41 tons, a nearly tenfold increase in just twelve months. The mining industry generated budgetary revenues of over 132 billion CFA francs for the public treasury in 2025, illustrating the effectiveness of the structural reforms implemented by the financial authorities to capture the wealth of the subsoil.

The spectacular improvement in legal statistics stems from a thorough overhaul of the regulatory framework for national gold mining. The Mining Code promulgated in 2024 notably increased the value of the official gold price by 66%, setting the purchase price at 50,000 CFA francs per gram, up from 30,000 CFA francs previously, encouraging artisanal miners to abandon the black market. At the same time, the Ministry of Mines closed several front cooperatives, expelled about thirty foreign operators in irregular situations, and introduced, in June 2026, an enhanced traceability protocol including continuous video surveillance and the presence of permanent inspectors in the Nana-Mambéré, Ouham, and Ouaka basins.

However, the accounting upsurge conceals a permanent capital flight that undermines the national economy. Analyses published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS Africa) reveal that transnational organized crime networks maintain active smuggling channels, transporting large shipments to the Cameroonian border town of Garoua-Boulaï before exporting the precious metal to the United Arab Emirates. A study by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) published in June 2026 highlights the extent of statistical distortions, recalling that real undeclared gold export flows had already reached 1.7 tons in the first half of 2025. The Central African government faces the challenge of consolidating its authority over remote extraction sites to transform the technical test into a lasting lever of financial sovereignty.


Ndjomo Carlos

Tags: or mines centrafrique exportations economie contrebande transnational criminalite afrique