Why is there so much gold in West Africa?

The military juntas that have seized power in the Sahel region of Africa, particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, have pressured Western mining companies to distribute the lucrative mining sector's revenues more fairly.

Gold is one of the key resources in this area. West Africa has been a major extraction site for centuries since the ancient Empire of Ghana, a period during which the region gained fame as a land rich in gold due to its abundant reserves and thriving trade networks. And today, it continues to be a world leader in gold production. In fact, West Africa contributed 10.8% to the total world gold production in 2024. But why is there so much gold in this region?

How is gold formed?

The answer is simple: we don't know for sure. However, experts have some theories.

Gold, like all elements, originated through high-energy reactions that occurred in various cosmic and spatial environments about 13 billion years ago, when the universe began to form.

However, it is believed that gold deposits, or the concentration of the material in large quantities within rock formations, occur through several processes, which can be explained by two theories.

The first, described by geologist Richard J. Goldfarb, holds that large amounts of gold were deposited in certain areas when continents were expanding and changing shape about 3 billion years ago.

In this process, smaller landmasses, or islands, collided and formed larger continents, a phenomenon called accretion. During these collisions, mineral-rich fluids moved through the Earth's crust, causing gold to be deposited in certain areas.