Nigeria, Sept. 29 -- Burkina Faso has launched its first gold refinery, the RAFFINOR-BF refinery, with the primary aim of processing its mineral resources domestically.

The country's military leader, Ibrahim Traore, inaugurated the refinery in Ouagadougou on Monday. He described the refinery as a part of the administration's plan to cut dependence on primary exports.

According to a statement by the Burkina Faso government's Information Service, Mr Traore said Burkina Faso has "reached a historic milestone in its quest for economic independence."

"Our ambition is no longer to be a country that simply extracts and ships its raw materials abroad. We want to refine all our metals locally. we want to have the entire value chain here," he sa...