Mineral trafficking in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been documented by various NGO and UN reports. According to the US Treasury, more than 90% of the gold produced in the DRC is thus smuggled through neighboring countries, first and foremost Rwanda and Uganda.
The profits of tons of gold, but also of tungsten, tantalum, or tin would be lost by the Democratic Republic of Congo because of the illegal trafficking of minerals in the east of the country. A shortfall that the Congolese Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, estimated, in an interview at FinancialTimes at the beginning of the week, to a billion dollars a year. And for the latter, neighboring Rwanda would be the big beneficiary of this traffic.
” It is difficult to know how much crosses through illegal channels, explains Jacques Mukena, governance and economics specialist at the Congolese Institute for Research on Politics, Governance and Violence. These are just estimates based on exports from Rwanda and Uganda. In fact, in the DRC there is no gold refinery, but there is a gold refinery in Rwanda and Uganda. It is on the basis of the export of these refineries that we can know more or less the quantity that these two countries export. This does not correspond to their local production. It gives indicators. This is a real shortfall for the DRC, confirms the expert in any case.
A partnership with the Emirates
To combat illegal gold exports, the Congolese authorities have established a partnership with the United Arab Emirates and created Primera Gold DRC. Objective for the joint venture: formally capture the precious metal extracted in South Kivu. “ Primera Gold buys gold directly from artisanal miners based in the DRC and exports it to the Emirates. To make it more formal and also to no longer pass, no longer depend, on Rwanda and Uganda, emphasizes Jacques Mukena. And Primera Gold is precisely going to formalize that. »
A few days ago, the Minister of Finance declared that Primera Gold DRC had allowed the export of more than 450 kg of artisanal gold since its launch in January against 34 kg officially last year.
President Kagame refutes Rwanda’s involvement
In his last conference, at the beginning of March, President Kagame once again denied supporting the theft of minerals by the M23 in the DRC. ” These are just useless stories to distract people from the real problem “, he had declared, justifying in particular that his country had its own resources in gold and coltan for example.
Already under US sanctions, Alain Goetz, the head of the gold refinery in Uganda, was added to the European Union sanctions list at the end of the year. He is accused of profiting from the armed conflict in eastern DRC and of engaging in the illicit gold mining trade in the country.