Since 2021, Ivorian authorities have dismantled more than 8,500 illegal gold mining sites. Yet the practice keeps expanding, with annual losses estimated in the trillions of CFA francs. Between law enforcement, a parallel economy and regional security stakes, Côte d’Ivoire is fighting a battle that extends well beyond the question of mining alone.
Gold plays a growing role in Côte d’Ivoire’s economy. The formal mining sector accounted for 4.5% to 5% of GDP in 2024, with exports exceeding $14 billion, placing the country among the continent’s top five mining producers. Alongside this expanding industrial sector, driven in part by the ramp-up of the Lafigué mine, a parallel economy is thriving. Côte d’Ivoire’s National Security Council, meeting on 23 July 2026 in Abidjan under President Alassane Ouattara, described the situation as highly concerning. Five years after the creation of the Special Task Force Against Illegal Gold Mining (GS-LOI), the operational record sits alongside a more troubling observation: the phenomenon is not receding.
Large-scale enforcement, an expanding phenomenon
Since 2021, the GS-LOI reports having cleared more than 8,500 clandestine sites and referred 4,474 people to the justice system, roughly two-thirds of them foreign nationals. Authorities also report seizing close to 960 million CFA francs in equipment and assets, and recovering 136 kilograms of gold. These figures reflect genuine operational effort, including near-daily field operations such as the March 2026 dismantling actions in Adzopé and Bongouanou.
These numbers sit alongside a different reality. The number of active clandestine sites reportedly rose from 801 in 2023 to more than 1,600 by May 2026, according to national gendarmerie data. The activity now reaches 24 of the country’s 31 regions. Operators whose sites are dismantled frequently relocate or rebuild quickly, limiting the lasting effect of destruction operations.
Financial estimates that diverge but remain substantial
Estimates of the state’s lost revenue vary by source, which calls for a cautious reading. Bloomfield Intelligence chairman Stan Zézé put annual losses at 4,600 billion CFA francs during the Country Risk Conference held at the Sofitel Abidjan in late April 2026, tied to an estimated 142 tonnes of gold escaping state control each year. That same 142-tonne figure was cited by Mines Minister Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly before the Bretton Woods institutions in Washington on 16 April 2026. Other estimates are notably lower: the NGO SWISSAID puts undeclared artisanal production at 30 to 40 tonnes per year, while a confidential internal strategic assessment dated July 2026 puts total illegal extraction at roughly 710 tonnes across the entire 2021 to mid-2026 period, a considerably lower annual average than the 142-tonne figure. One point is consistent across sources: the interception rate remains marginal, around 0.13% of illegal output according to the same strategic note. Whichever estimate is used, the gap between extracted and seized volumes remains substantial.
An economic chain that extends well beyond the artisanal miner
Reducing illegal gold mining to its field workers gives an incomplete picture. A 2026 study by researchers at Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny maps how economic power is distributed at site level: financiers, equipment owners, local intermediaries and buyers capture most of the value, while the miners themselves, an estimated 500,000 people, often work for years without significant financial gain. The extracted gold then moves through regional channels, notably via Burkina Faso and Mali, before reaching international trading hubs.
The government points to local complicity
Following the 5 August 2026 Council of Ministers meeting, government spokesperson Amadou Coulibaly warned that the law would now be applied firmly against village chiefs and administration officials found complicit. According to him, no clandestine operator can set up in a village without the approval of a land chief or village chief, which places responsibility beyond the field operators themselves. The spokesperson also called on local development associations to alert authorities when they observe such arrangements. This shift in official messaging, from the extraction site to the local approval chain, echoes findings by university researchers on how economic power is distributed across the sector.
A security and environmental risk that crosses borders
The security dimension of the issue has grown more pronounced in recent years. A 2025 mapping report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime indicates that the armed group JNIM draws resources from artisanal gold mining in parts of the Burkina Faso-Côte d’Ivoire border zone. This complicates a purely law-enforcement response, since it links the clandestine gold economy to regional stability concerns that extend beyond national borders.
On the environmental side, mercury and cyanide used in ore processing contaminate soil and waterways. The United Nations Environment Programme identifies artisanal mining as the world’s leading source of mercury pollution. Côte d’Ivoire signed the Minamata Convention in 2013 and ratified it in 2019, committing the country to progressively reducing mercury use in artisanal mining. The 27 February 2026 launch of a land mapping and rehabilitation project in Daoukro, led by the Abidjan Legacy Program with ECOWAS support, is part of that remediation effort.
Rivers and land already marked by the damage
The pollution is no longer a hypothetical risk, it is already measurable on the ground. In May 2026, contamination of the N’Zi river left the town of Bocanda facing a drinking water shortage, as high turbidity complicated treatment by local utilities. In Agboville, a similar degradation observed in early August 2026 was traced to mining sites further upstream, in the Moronou region where the Agbo river originates. In the southeast, the Tendo-Ehy and Aby lagoons, visited by Environment Minister Abou Bamba in February 2026, face persistent pollution and unregulated infilling that threaten local biodiversity. Along the Yamoussoukro-Bouaflé stretch, the Bandama river has taken on a distinctive orange tint linked to the large-scale washing of gold-bearing sand. A 2023 assessment by the Ministry of Water and Forests had already found that all twelve of the country’s river basins were affected, with illegal gold mining responsible for roughly 80% of that pollution.
A strategy caught between enforcement and alternatives
Ivorian authorities acknowledge the limits of a purely enforcement-based approach. The government has moved to strengthen magistrate training, aiming to convert more arrests into effective convictions. It also plans to involve prefects and customary chiefs more directly, and to deepen cooperation with the countries of origin of foreign miners. At the same time, the industrial mining sector keeps growing, with official production rising from 58 tonnes in 2024 to an estimated 62 tonnes in 2025, and industrial mines contributing 0.5% of their revenue to the Local Development Fund. This formalization push is meant to offer a structured alternative to an artisanal activity that remains, for hundreds of thousands of people, a direct source of income.
The record presented by the National Security Council highlights operational volumes. It says little about what actually moves up the chain, to the financiers and resale networks that let a dismantled site reopen a few kilometers away. The coming months will offer a more reliable signal than the current figures: how many of the 4,474 people referred to justice end up convicted, and how far the gold traceability mechanism Abidjan promised the Bretton Woods institutions actually gets built.