ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia on Saturday launched its first national refining facility for gold and other precious metals, aiming to advance domestic value addition and industrial processing capacity.
Inaugurating the National Precious Metals Refinery at the Bole Lemi Special Economic Zone on the outskirts of the capital, Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the refinery will increase export earnings, create skilled jobs, support the jewellery industry, and foster a more transparent and competitive gold value chain.
"With a capacity to process over 600 tonnes of precious metals annually, the refinery marks a major milestone in advancing domestic value addition, strengthening Ethiopia's mining sector, and positioning our country as a regional hub for precious metals refining," Abiy said.
Established through a joint venture between the Ethiopian Investment Holdings and an international investment firm, the refinery seeks to accelerate the country's extractive industry sector and transition away from the direct export of raw gold and unrefined precious metals, it was noted.
As the East African country's pioneer gold refinery, the facility aims to become one of Africa's largest precious-metals refining facilities by land area and a regional hub for gold refining and value addition, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement Saturday.
The Ethiopian government has recently designated the mining sector as one of the country's five primary economic pillars.
Gold exports generated more than 5.5 billion U.S. dollars during the 2025/2026 Ethiopian fiscal year that ended on July 7, as commercial and artisanal miners produced a combined total of 44 tonnes of gold across the country's key gold-producing regions, according to data from the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines. ■