• Cameroon to close non-compliant artisanal gold sites from January 2026

• Move follows EITI report highlighting major gold export discrepancies

• Government seeks tighter oversight and shift toward industrial mining

Cameroon will shut down certain artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) sites from January 2026 as part of efforts to curb smuggling, Mines Minister Fuh Calistus Gentry said on Monday, December 29.

The closures will target sites that do not operate closed-loop ore processing systems, Gentry said. The decision follows a report by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which found a 15-ton gap between Cameroon’s official gold exports and the volumes other countries reported importing from the country, notably the United Arab Emirates.

The government also plans to tighten oversight of gold production through the state-owned mining company SONAMINES, which is mandated to purchase domestic output. With no industrial gold mines currently in operation, authorities say they want to promote industrial mining projects, whose production is easier to track.

According to the EITI, Cameroon officially exported just 22.3 kg of gold in 2023. In the same year, international trade data show that countries imported 15.2 tons of gold attributed to Cameroon, more than 90% of which went to the UAE. Dubai has emerged as a global hub for the gold trade, including metal originating from opaque supply chains. Swiss NGO SWISSAID estimates that the UAE imported 748 tons of African gold in 2024.

“Gold produced in Cameroon is almost entirely from artisanal and small-scale mining, which, as in many African countries, operates without feasibility studies that would allow the state to forecast output,” Gentry said. He added that porous land borders also facilitate the smuggling of gold mined in neighboring countries and exported to the UAE while being declared as Cameroonian in origin.

The effectiveness of the new measures will be assessed in the months following their implementation. Some African countries have recorded progress through efforts to formalize artisanal mining and strengthen state purchasing agencies, including Burkina Faso, where the National Precious Substances Company (SONASP) purchased 29.56 tons of ASM gold in the first nine months of 2025, up from 5.57 tons in the same period of 2024.

Emiliano Tossou