Australian mining tycoon Tony Poli holds a $120 million stake in a Burkina Faso gold miner facing a government takeover demand

West African Resources is one of the most commercially significant gold mining stories on the African continent right now. It is also one of the most politically complicated. The Australian Securities Exchange-listed company operates two gold mines in Burkina Faso, targets between 430,000 and 490,000 ounces of gold output for 2026, has committed $20 million to exploration this year and is simultaneously locked in a dispute with Burkina Faso's military government over how much of its flagship mine the state intends to take. Among the investors riding that story is Anthony Poli, who holds a 4.49 percent stake in the company worth over $120 million at current share prices.

Poli is among the most significant individual shareholders in a company where institutional ownership dominates. L1 Capital, a Melbourne-based investment firm, holds 9 percent. Van Eck, the US precious metals-focused fund manager, holds 7.7 percent. Vanguard Group holds 5 percent. Poli, with 4.49 percent, sits just below Vanguard in the shareholder register, making him the largest individual investor on the company's books by a considerable margin. Richard Hyde, the company's founder, executive chairman and chief executive, holds 1.5 percent. Poli's stake is three times the size of Hyde's personal holding. Ecofin Agency confirmed Poli currently serves as a director at Asenjo Energy, a mining and energy company, a role that places his West African Resources position within a broader pattern of investment in the African resources sector.

West African Resources was built around two mining operations in Burkina Faso, one of West Africa's most significant gold-producing countries and simultaneously one of the most difficult operating environments on the continent. The Sanbrado mine, the company's original operation, has been producing gold since 2020 and has established itself as a low-cost, high-margin operation. Kiaka, the company's second and larger mine, is located in the Centre-Est region of Burkina Faso, covering approximately 54 square kilometres, and began production in June 2025. It is expected to produce between 240,000 and 280,000 ounces annually at full run rate, making it one of the larger new gold operations in West Africa.

The combination of Sanbrado and Kiaka underpins the 2026 production target of 430,000 to 490,000 ounces, which Hyde described at the year's opening as a landmark year for the company. If achieved, it would represent a significant step up from prior years and position West African Resources among the mid-tier gold producers globally. The company is targeting all-in sustaining costs below $1,900 per ounce, a threshold that at current gold prices, which have been supported by inflation hedging demand and geopolitical uncertainty, would generate substantial operating cash flow. The company has flagged that it may introduce dividends and a share buyback programme later in 2026, signalling confidence in its free cash flow trajectory.

The complication arrived in April 2026 when the Burkina Faso government, led by military captain Ibrahim Traore's administration, issued a decree seeking to raise the state's ownership stake in the Kiaka mine from 15 percent to 40 percent. West African Resources suspended trading in its ASX shares while it assessed and prepared a market response. The company had previously navigated an increase in the state's stake from 10 percent to 15 percent at no cost under the country's 2024 revised mining code, which was presented as a standard provision applying across the sector. The proposed jump to 40 percent was a more significant demand and reflected a broader pattern of resource nationalism that has reshaped the mining landscape across Burkina Faso over the past two years.

At the time West African Resources valued each 5 percent stake increment at approximately $33.4 million, implying the 25 percentage point increase Burkina Faso was seeking had a commercial value in the hundreds of millions of dollars. How that stake transfer would be priced, whether the state would pay fair value or claim it as a regulatory entitlement, remained the central unresolved question in negotiations still underway at the time of publication.

The political context of those negotiations is inseparable from the broader situation in Burkina Faso. Captain Traore came to power in a September 2022 coup and has governed under a state of emergency while the country battles an expanding Islamist insurgency that has displaced more than two million people and disrupted operations across the mining sector. Foreign miners including IAMGOLD and Nordgold have exited or reduced their Burkina Faso presence under the combination of security risk and regulatory pressure. West African Resources has remained committed to its operations, citing its long-standing relationships with local communities and the Burkinabe state as a competitive advantage in a market from which less patient competitors have withdrawn.

The $20 million exploration programme committed for 2026, covering more than 100,000 metres of drilling across Kiaka, Sanbrado and nearby targets, reflects that commitment. The company is investing in extending mine life and identifying additional reserves at the same moment it is negotiating with a government that wants a larger share of what those reserves will produce.

For Anthony Poli, the investment represents a significant exposure to exactly the kind of high-risk, high-reward frontier market mining story that generates extraordinary returns when everything goes right and brutal losses when political risk materialises at scale. His 4.49 percent stake, worth over $120 million at current valuations, places him among the company's most consequential individual investors at the most consequential moment in the company's history.