Conflict Gold to Responsible Gold: A Roadmap for Companies & Governments
Publisher: Sentry
Author(s): Sasha Lezhnev
Date: 2021
Topics: Extractive Resources, Governance
Countries: Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates
Gold’s meteoric rise in price has brought renewed attention to the problem of conflict gold—gold that funds armed groups and criminal networks. Over $4 billion in conflict-affected or high-risk gold from Central and East Africa flows to international markets annually, including to the United States, India, the Middle East, Europe, and China. Electronics, jewelry, automotive, and financial services companies are at risk of purchasing conflict and high-risk gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, and South Sudan via Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Gold from these conflict-affected countries is primarily smuggled to neighboring countries—namely Uganda, Rwanda, Cameroon, Kenya, Chad, and Burundi—and then exported to Dubai before ending up in jewelry or gold bars around the world.
Meanwhile, a nascent trade in responsible, conflict-free artisanal gold is emerging from East and Central Africa, but it needs significant regional and international policy changes and industry engagement in order to grow. Hundreds of thousands of men and women work in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) in East and Central Africa, but they are frequently exploited by corrupt officials, criminal traders, armed units, and poor policies. COVID-19 has left artisanal mining communities in the region even more vulnerable to price and criminal exploitation.