The Birimian greenstone belts are one of the world’s most prolific gold provinces, stretching across West Africa and hosting dozens of multimillion-ounce deposits.
Formed more than two billion years ago, the volcanic-sedimentary rocks and shear zones have created dense clusters or orogenic gold systems stretching from Ghana through Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Guinea.
The Birimian greenstone belts contain rocks of the right age and type that have been folded, sheared, and altered in ways that make it highly favourable for gold mineralisation.
The African continent holds around 30% of all known global gold reserves across several gold-bearing greenstone belts, with Ghana standing out as Africa’s largest gold producer, followed by Mali.
The Birimian greenstone belt hosts major operations including AngloGold Ashanti’s (JSE:ANG) Obuasi, Gold Fields’ (JSE:GFI) Tarkwa Gold Mine, Barrick Mining’s (NYSE:B) Loulo-Gounkoto complex. These major operators helped to establish the region as a significant gold-producing region.
On the exploration front, the region hosts large areas that are still relatively underexplored, offering significant opportunities for new discoveries. Gold exploration plays a vital role in West Africa’s growth outlook and global gold production, yet new resource nationalism laws are tightening control over how projects are owned, permitted, and developed. The region is signalling a clear desire for exploration, but on terms that deliver value to the individual states.
Current efforts are focused on developing local expertise, retaining profits for national growth, and ensuring that local communities are able to benefit directly from mining operations.
In 2023, Mali rewrote its mining code to claim a larger stake in projects for the state, up to 35%. The industry saw this play out in 2024 through a dispute between the Government of Mali and Barrick, which led to the Loulo-Gounkoto complex being placed under provisional administration in mid-2025.
The dispute was resolved in late 2025, resulting in Barrick agreeing to pay around $430 million to the state and then resuming operational control and restarting production.
In early August 2026, Mali’s Finance Minister Alousseni Sanou announced plans to use revenue generated under the revised mining code to fund critical infrastructure, reflecting a shift from relying solely on commodity exports towards using the industry to support domestic development.
Mali’s industrial gold production is expected to reach 43.2 metric tonnes in 2026, up from 42.2 tonnes in 2025, according to the country’s latest mining ministry plan. The projections follow a sharp decline between 2024 and 2025, when production fell by nearly 23%, largely due to disruptions at Loulo-Gounkoto.
In February 2026, Ghana’s Minerals Commission CEO Isaac Tandoh announced several reforms aimed at increasing Ghanaian ownership and control of the country’s mining sector.
Tandoh signalled that the changes were designed to correct “decades of imbalance in the ownership of the nation’s mineral resources”.
The Ghanaian Government is now pursuing regulatory changes all aimed at allowing the country and its citizens to capture more value from its mineral wealth, particularly amid rising gold prices. Local content provisions are expected to be embedded in mining agreements, procurement decisions, and employment policies moving forward.
Despite the rising resource nationalism across the region, foreign junior explorers continue to have meaningful entry points into the Birimian. Governments in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and elsewhere continue to court early-stage exploration capital, recognising that juniors are the ones that will make the discoveries that will later underpin industrial-scale production.
While ownership rules, local content requirements, and permitting frameworks are tightening, most jurisdictions are signalling that transparent partnerships, strong community engagement, and early alignment with national development goals provide pathways for international explorers to secure ground and advance projects.
Côte d’Ivoire is emerging as a key West African jurisdiction, being relatively underexplored for gold. The Minister of Mines, Petroleum, and Energy Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly has actively encouraged investment and participation in the country’s mining sector as the government aims to make Côte d’Ivoire one of Africa’s largest gold producers by 2030.
The Birimian greenstone belts remain at the core of West Africa’s gold story, forming a geological province that has already delivered mines primed to attract more global capital.
As governments from Ghana to Mali tighten ownership rules and embed local content provisions, the operating environment is shifting and junior explorers and emerging producers are carving out opportunities by combining technical expertise with deep local partnerships.
Their ability to align with national development goals, engage local communities, and deliver transparent exploration programs is increasingly becoming the differentiator that determines success.
Kobada Gold Project nears production
Toubani Resources (ASX:TRE) is advancing the Kobada Gold Project in Mali with a derisked path to production.
The company is updating the mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the project, following the completion of a 26,000m pre-production infill drilling program. Results include 33m @ 3.12 grams per tonne gold (Au) from 164m, including 1m @ 33.4g/t Au as a highlight intercept. An updated ore reserve estimate and mine plan are expected in Q4 2026, ahead of the targeted start of mining in early 2027.
Managing Director Phil Russo says that despite West Africa’s status as one of the world’s premier gold mining regions globally, it is often overlooked even as it continues to deliver new, high-grade gold discoveries, many of which are near surface and relatively simple to develop.
“At Kobada, we have the benefit of a simple, free dig oxide operation, the type of which hasn’t been seen at this scale in Australia for almost 20 years.”
Russo notes operating in West Africa can be as straightforward as Western Australia, with strong regional expertise across mining and drilling. However, he does say shipping of equipment through the ports and other general transport requires careful planning as delays can occur.
Toubani has developed deep in-country relationships, noting that “one meeting in person is worth a thousand messages sent”.
Russo says cultural understanding is critical. While observers may be quick to focus on the news about government interests in projects, they can overlook the need for states and the communities to benefit from mines, often in ways that differ from the expectations of Western governments.
Toubani currently has three drill rigs operating at the project across exploration, resource definition, and regional drilling. Reverse circulation rigs have already drilled close to 50,000m in 2026, testing mineralisation along the project’s margins and beyond the current MRE. Toubani plans to bring the results into its forthcoming MRE update.
Aircore drilling is testing targets along strike from known prospects within the project area.
Russo says Toubani is also considering trialling induced polarisation (IP) to define structures and identify cross-structures or areas that may correlate with high-grade zones.
Bomboré growth and multi-mine momentum
Orezone Gold (TSX:ORE) is an emerging intermediate gold producer that brought the Bomboré mine in Burkina Faso into production in late 2022.
Between Bomboré and the company’s Casa Berardi operations in Canada, Orezone produced 58,566 ounces of gold in the June 2026 quarter, which also marked the company’s first full quarter as a multi-mine producer, as previously reported.
President, CEO, and Director Patrick Downey echoes Russo’s views on cultivating strong local relationships while recognising cultural differences when working with governments of different countries.
“Building trust with local communities and customary authorities from the beginning is essential,” Downey says.
“Even when you have the legal right to explore through a government-issued permit, establishing strong relationships with local leaders often determines how smoothly your program progresses.”
Regarding government ownership and other considerations, Downey points out that many West African governments retain interest in future mining operations, meaning relationships should be approached as long-term partnerships.
“Prioritising local content, supporting local business, and contributing to national development objectives are increasingly important components of successful exploration and project development,” Downey says.
Regarding the belt’s prospectivity, Downey says a key advantage is the effectiveness of geochemistry, with several of the region’s major discoveries initially identified through soil geochemical surveys.
Orezone Gold is focused on growing its resource base, identifying new opportunities within its broader land package, and generating the geological data required to support future mine planning and long-term growth.
“Our program combines regional target generation with systematic drilling to better define the extent of hard rock mineralisation beneath and around the existing deposit,” Downey says.
“We’re currently operating five drill rigs across the Bomboré mining licence, following up on several promising exploration targets, while also expanding our understanding of known mineralised systems.”
Lessons from West Africa, pivot to Guyana
Tajiri Resources’ (TSX-V:TAJ) President and CEO Graham Keevil highlights the geology of the West African Craton and Birimian greenstone belts as a key factor attracting exploration companies to the region.
“It’s a proven geological system,” Keevil says.
“You’ve got multiple major gold districts and deposits demonstrating the endowment, but there is still a lot of exploration upside.
“There are opportunities both around known mineralised systems and in less well-explored parts of the greenstone belts, including beneath cover and at depth.”
Tajiri Resources is not currently active in the region but has extensive experience operating in Burkina Faso, including through coups d’état and subsequent changes to mining regulations.
“That created a very different risk profile for an exploration company, because the question wasn’t simply whether you could obtain an exploration permit, but whether you could have confidence that the regulatory framework and your underlying rights would remain stable as the political situation evolved,” Keevil says.
In this content, Keevil stresses the need for strong local legal and government relations advice to understand the permitting framework and fiscal regime and maintain constructive relationships with government at local and national levels.
“Equally important, you need genuine engagement with the communities in which you’re operating,” he says.
“Community relations aren’t just a box to tick as part of permitting. They can have a very real impact on whether you’re able to operate effectively in the field.”
Tajiri has shifted its focus into Guyana, where it has been active for two decades. Keevil notes the country remains significantly underexplored relative to the more mature West African gold provinces.
“I think Guyana presents a very compelling alternative: a world-class geological opportunity, substantial remaining exploration potential, and a government and regulatory environment where we have confidence in our ability to secure and maintain the rights necessary to explore and develop those opportunities.”
Tajiri Resources is commencing an IP survey to refine targets for its fully funded maiden drill program at the Yono Gold Project in Guyana. Given the project’s proximity to G Mining Ventures’ soon to be Oko Mine open pit, the company believes Yono forms part of the same gold-bearing system that will host Guyana’s next producing gold mine.
Côte d’Ivoire pipeline expands with 60,000m campaign
Many Peaks Minerals (ASX:MPK) has an expanding project pipeline in Côte d’Ivoire. Its portfolio includes Ferké, which covers 521km2, extends more than 37km, and has an MRE of 26.7 million tonnes @ 1.54/gt Au for 1.32 million ounces. The portfolio also includes the 366km2 Odienné South permit and the 644km2 early-stage Baga early exploration project.
The company began a 60,000m drilling campaign at its projects in early June 2026 following IP and gradient array surveys at Odienné that identified anomalies associated with gold mineralisation.
Many Peaks highlights Côte d’Ivoire as a particularly stable mining investment jurisdiction in West Africa as well as its potential as the fastest growing gold producing region globally.
West Africa’s Birimian greenstone belt continues to prove that geology and opportunity go hand-in-hand, and while governments tighten their grip, juniors are showing that discovery, partnerships, and persistence remain the keys to unlocking the region’s next chapter.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, Toubani Resources, Orezone Gold, Tajiri Resources, Many Peaks Minerals
