The vague circuits of gold washing in the Sahara and the Sahel (2)

Gold nuggets.

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Text by: Arnaud Jouve Follow

15 mins

Between illegality and legality, look at the vague circuits of gold panning from Africa to the Dubai marketplace.

Second interview in our two-part series on artisanal gold in the Sahel and the Sahara, with researcher Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert. 

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Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert, researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), co-author with Enrico Ille and Mohamed Salah of "Power practices, mining conflicts and the gold economy in Sudan during the al-Inqaz regime" , Politique africaine 2020/2, n ° 158 and with Géraud Magrin and Laurent Gagnol from “Les rushes vers l'or au Sahara et au nord du Sahel.

Crisis or stabilizer?

», Hérodote, 2019/1, n ° 172

RFI: Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert, gold panning which continues to develop in the Sahara and the Sahel since the early 2000s had to find solutions to operate and to sell its production.

How artisanal gold holdings 

s

e are organized in these regions often in great difficulty?

Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert:

 From the 2000s, gold prices soared and it became profitable for everyone to leave with little means in the Sahara to look for gold. Real gold rushes then affected many countries of the Sahelian strip and these countries were not prepared for this type of phenomenon either to manage locally the large and sudden influxes of people but also over time to organize this booming economic activity. I remember in particular a village of 2,500 inhabitants in central Chad, on the shores of Lake Fitri, at the end of 2015,where the population rose in a few days to 40,000 people because individuals had found a few grams of gold and information had quickly circulated via social networks causing in barely a week a real rush. 

Everywhere in the Sahara and the Sahel, as soon as these new operations gave rise to gold, they had to quickly find outlets for their production, in difficult contexts where the laws were for the most part oriented almost exclusively towards the industrial mining sector. and largely floating for the artisanal sector, unlike other countries in sub-Saharan Africa such as the Congo or the countries of West Africa which had a long-standing practice of gold panning with associated supervision. Even though trade networks and gold trading posts existed in some countries, the scale of the phenomenon revealed new situations. For example in Sudan, we had agold in the capital which was a market mainly concerning jewelry and not a market for raw gold mined from the earth, but this created opportunities, not only for private actors (gold miners, traders, investors, etc. .) but also for public actors (States, local authorities) who have sought to benefit from this new windfall by different means (supervision and taxation, commercial monopoly, etc.). The rise of this new sector, little supervised and very lucrative, has also constituted an opportunity for “illegal” actors in the region (armed groups in particular but also certain segments of the state apparatuses of often authoritarian regimes).) but also for public actors (States, local authorities) who have sought to benefit from this new windfall by different means (supervision and taxation, commercial monopoly, etc.). The rise of this new sector, little supervised and very lucrative, has also constituted an opportunity for “illegal” actors in the region (armed groups in particular but also certain segments of the state apparatuses of often authoritarian regimes).) but also for public actors (States, local authorities) who have sought to benefit from this new windfall by different means (supervision and taxation, commercial monopoly, etc.). The rise of this new sector, little supervised and very lucrative, has also constituted an opportunity for “illegal” actors in the region (armed groups in particular but also certain segments of the state apparatuses of often authoritarian regimes).has also been an opportunity for “illegal” actors in the region (armed groups in particular, but also certain segments of the state apparatus of often authoritarian regimes).has also been an opportunity for “illegal” actors in the region (armed groups in particular, but also certain segments of the state apparatus of often authoritarian regimes). 

Knowledge and mastery of the merchant sectors necessary for the flow of ore on the world market quickly turned out to be one of the main power nodes of this new sector, thus constituting a crucial issue for States whether it is for questions of control or the fight against illegal financing, but also for those relating to the taxation of this lucrative activity. 

If you look globally at the gold circuits that concern the African continent, the major trading places are Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

What we observe is that a large part of the gold coming from the Sahelian and Saharan zone is now drained towards Dubai, where this gold from multiple sources merges into the legal market. 

Gold panning, artisanal gold mining, is particularly vulnerable to jihadist groups in the Sahel.

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The borders between the legal and illegal circuits are, in this region and this activity, sometimes difficult to discern.

Who controls this annuity?

Faced with this new income in often very poor regions, appetites are multiple.

There are of course the public actors who hope to benefit from the activity as well as all the private actors participating in the process, from extraction to commercialization, but also, as we have mentioned, actors installed in the areas. extraction or controlling trade routes or even transit nodes in the economic chain (export authorizations for example). 

To get an idea of ​​how things are controlled, you first have to get back to technique a bit. Initially, gold panning in the Sahelo-Saharan zone started with metal detectors, that is to say according to a technique requiring very high mobility of gold miners. To work, it was therefore necessary to have one or more devices, a few shovels and pickaxes, a car and enough to feed a team of artisanal miners for several days. It is at these various levels that the investments and deals concerning the ore found were played out. Some states have started to tax devices and try to control part of the ore trade by organizing new export channels. 

Due to the often peripheral location of the mining areas, violent ransoms are common on the routes taken by the miners and for the latter, it is crucial to quickly secure the ore found or the money received. In addition, the organization of the system is largely modified when the artisanal miners start to collect gold in the same place, in wells or by digging the rock; their sedentarization for several weeks or months then supposes a local arrangement to stay where they work. In sensitive areas that are weakly controlled by states, for example those in conflict such as Darfur, southern Libya, northern Chad or southern Algeria,gold miners need to secure their activity so as not to lose everything in a raid by an armed group or due to the intervention of the police. Arrangements are then made to be able to operate, whether with armed bands which control the territory where they work and which then take the role of absent public authorities, or with local authorities exercising their prerogatives more or less on behalf of the central state. 

To illustrate this, you have in Darfur, on the edge of Jebel Amir mountain, a very large gold mine where there are a little over 20,000 wells. This mine was controlled by Musa Hilal, a traditional chief of the region, former leader of Janjaweed militias, very active in the war in Darfur, which was very close to the Sudanese government of Omar al-Bashir. There, Musa Hilal operated as the Sudanese state did in other regions, levying taxes directly in exchange for security. The mine will subsequently be recovered by the Sudanese state at the time of Omar el-Bechir, under the control of Hemetti, whose real name is Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a former lieutenant of Musa Hilal,today number two of the transitional military council (headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhane) and the head of the formidable Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who stood out in June 2019 in a crackdown on a protest movement that has killed at least 108 people. This man, from the same ethnicity as Musa Hilal, was initially a member of his militia (which was later integrated into the official Sudanese security forces), but Musa Hilal began to distance himself from the regime. Omar al-Bashir and it was then Hemetti who was supported by the regime leading the latter to arrest Musa Hilal and take control of the large gold mine of Jebel Amir. Today it is believed to be the source of much of its wealth.were distinguished in June 2019 in a crackdown on a protest movement that has left at least 108 dead. This man, from the same ethnicity as Musa Hilal, was initially a member of his militia (which was later integrated into the official Sudanese security forces), but Musa Hilal began to distance himself from the regime. Omar al-Bashir and it was then Hemetti who was supported by the regime leading the latter to arrest Musa Hilal and take control of the large gold mine of Jebel Amir. Today it is believed to be the source of much of its wealth.were distinguished in June 2019 in a crackdown on a protest movement that has left at least 108 dead. This man, from the same ethnicity as Musa Hilal, was initially a member of his militia (which was later integrated into the official Sudanese security forces), but Musa Hilal began to distance himself from the regime. Omar al-Bashir and it was then Hemetti who was supported by the regime leading the latter to arrest Musa Hilal and take control of the large gold mine of Jebel Amir. Today it is believed to be the source of much of its wealth.but Musa Hilal began to distance himself from the regime of Omar al-Bashir and it was then Hemetti who was supported by the regime leading the latter to arrest Musa Hilal and take control of the great gold mine of Jebel Amir. Today it is believed to be the source of much of its wealth.but Musa Hilal began to distance himself from the regime of Omar al-Bashir and it was then Hemetti who was supported by the regime leading the latter to arrest Musa Hilal and take control of the great gold mine of Jebel Amir. Today it is believed to be the source of much of its wealth. 

This is why this story of legality and illegality is complicated, because we are sometimes in States which are not always legitimate States and which themselves participate in their civil conflicts or the predation of resources. national for private use. 

In Darfur, violence is regular between Arab and non-Arab tribes in conflict over land and natural resources in the region.

© Abdulmonam Eassa / RFI

How does the question of the control and organization of gold panning arise for the States?

This is a fairly central question as most of the states concerned are relatively poor and therefore hope to benefit from this new windfall. Initially, most of them thought of industrializing the sector rather than promoting the development of artisanal activities. Repression was therefore the first reaction of States, but as activity developed, States evolved, oscillating between maintaining a fierce repression or, on the contrary, encouraging an artisanal sector benefiting a large number and concerning territories that are often peripheral and underdeveloped.A mixture of tolerance and repression of activities prevailed in most of the States which focused on the control of the commercial chain and the profit at the level of some of its stages with in particular the construction (or construction projects) of refineries. which should also benefit the artisanal sector. Certain States such as Sudan nevertheless very quickly saw the potential of this sector if it were to be developed and then put in place legislative tools to promote its development, which made it possible to move upmarket activities with new mechanization techniques. The development of the artisanal sector has also led to the development of an economic niche highly coveted by medium-sized investors (compared to large mining companies):that of the reprocessing of the waste left by the artisanal miners once they have extracted artisanally, often using mercury, the gold from the crushed rocks. The gold content in fact remains very high in this waste because artisanal techniques only allow a small part to be extracted. Once recovered, this waste is therefore reprocessed in small industries which most often use cyanidation techniques. This activity is proving particularly profitable and the negotiations to obtain authorizations from the mining ministries or sometimes from the presidency all the more opaque as the financial stakes are high.The gold content in fact remains very high in this waste because artisanal techniques only allow a small part to be extracted. Once recovered, this waste is therefore reprocessed in small industries which most often use cyanidation techniques. This activity is proving particularly profitable and the negotiations to obtain authorizations from the mining ministries or sometimes from the presidency all the more opaque as the financial stakes are high.The gold content in fact remains very high in this waste because artisanal techniques only allow a small part to be extracted. Once recovered, this waste is therefore reprocessed in small industries which most often use cyanidation techniques. This activity is proving particularly profitable and the negotiations to obtain authorizations from the mining ministries or sometimes from the presidency all the more opaque as the financial stakes are high.This activity is proving particularly profitable and the negotiations to obtain authorizations from the mining ministries or sometimes from the presidency all the more opaque as the financial stakes are high.This activity is proving particularly profitable and the negotiations to obtain authorizations from the mining ministries or sometimes from the presidency all the more opaque as the financial stakes are high. 

The difficulties of controlling primary extraction sites, often located in peripheral areas, sometimes very remote in the desert or in conflict, and the need for large quantities of water for the second stage of extraction, has led to many States to target this second stage for its control by organizing specific treatment areas. In Sudan, many of these areas are located on the banks of the Nile and artisanal miners are prepared to travel several hundred kilometers to get there. They find there mills to crush their rocks, extraction basins using mercury but also traders to whom to resell their ore and thus obtain a nest egg to stock up on food and equipment in the adjoining market. before returning to the primary extraction areas. 

The distances traveled by the artisanal miners are sometimes colossal; their mobility depends on local constraints. For example, in the south of Libya in the Al Aweinat massif, the chronic instability of the region and the salinity of the water points of the oases of the region mean that most of the ore mined there is found treaty on the banks of the Nile, on the Egyptian border, that is to say more than 700 kilometers away. Likewise, gold mined in southern Algeria, where gold panning is prohibited, is processed on the Nigerian side. The groups of gold miners go to Algerian soil at night and cross the border before dawn so as not to be arrested because otherwise the penalties are very heavy. In Chad, where gold panning is prohibited until today,The State regularly organizes site closures but this does not really dry up the activity as the opportunity to earn a better life attracts multiple candidates. The activity is particularly important in the mountainous areas of Tibesti, border area with Libya. This geographical situation means that the artisanal miners are overwhelmingly dependent for their water and gasoline supply on the communities of southern Libya who control the market.This geographical situation means that the artisanal miners are overwhelmingly dependent for their water and gasoline supply on the communities of southern Libya who control the market.This geographical situation means that the artisanal miners are overwhelmingly dependent for their water and gasoline supply on the communities of southern Libya who control the market. 

In the heart of the Sahara in northern Niger AP - Jerome Delay

Gold panning has therefore created significant tensions for States for ten years, and many would prefer to industrialize the sector to better control the situation, because with gold panning, there are many individuals that must be tried to identify and many circuits that must be understood.

In addition, this would allow better control of withdrawals and better management of this resource.

But gold panning is an unprecedented engine of development, especially at the local level, and brings work opportunities to populations who are largely deprived of them.

Above all, its outright eviction today seems impossible for the States, which therefore have more interest in controlling it than leaving it in the hands of more opaque or armed groups.  

Once mined, how does this gold circulate to find its way into the international circuit?

Most of the gold mined in the Sahel-Saharan states is destined for the world market and only a small amount is sold locally, generally for jewelry.

This is all the more true as until recently, almost no State in the region had a refinery, which made it compulsory to leave the ore to places where it was refined. 

The two major trading places where refiners of gold from the African continent work are Dubai and Switzerland. In Switzerland, for several years, very coordinated and effective NGO actions made it possible to change the legislation in favor of better control of dubious gold circuits, coming from relatively conflictual and poorly controlled areas, which arrived in the region. Geneva market. These developments have made it more difficult for Switzerland to access little controlled African gold circuits. While at the same time the place of Dubai, which was less careful about the origins of gold, became much more important. In just a few years, the United Arab Emirates have become one of the world's top four importers of gold alongside Switzerland, Hong Kong and India. In 2018,half of the gold passing through Dubai came from the African continent (around 400 tonnes), a large part of which is probably exported illegally. There, the gold is processed by refiners and then resold. Once the gold is melted into bullion, it then becomes very difficult to know where it came from. This difficulty makes the fight against bad practices, and in particular the laundering of dirty money, extremely complicated. This is also true when it comes to applying the restrictions imposed by the American Dodd-Franck law or the European law on minerals from conflict zones or when operators intend to respect the standards of "due diligence" promoted by the company. OECD and the London Bullion Market Association in the sector.  the gold is processed by refiners and then resold. Once the gold is melted into bullion, it then becomes very difficult to know where it came from. This difficulty makes the fight against bad practices, and in particular the laundering of dirty money, extremely complicated. This is also true when it comes to applying the restrictions imposed by the American Dodd-Franck law or the European law on minerals from conflict zones or when operators intend to respect the standards of "due diligence" promoted by the company. OECD and the London Bullion Market Association in the sector.the gold is processed by refiners and then resold. Once the gold is melted into bullion, it then becomes very difficult to know where it came from. This difficulty makes the fight against bad practices, and in particular the laundering of dirty money, extremely complicated. This is also true when it comes to applying the restrictions imposed by the American Dodd-Franck law or the European law on minerals from conflict zones or when operators intend to respect the standards of "due diligence" promoted by the company. OECD and the London Bullion Market Association in the sector.extremely complicated. This is also true when it comes to applying the restrictions imposed by the American Dodd-Franck law or the European law on minerals from conflict zones or when operators intend to respect the standards of "due diligence" promoted by the company. OECD and the London Bullion Market Association in the sector.extremely complicated. This is also true when it comes to applying the restrictions imposed by the American Dodd-Franck law or the European law on minerals from conflict zones or when operators intend to respect the standards of "due diligence" promoted by the company. OECD and the London Bullion Market Association in the sector. 

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To read also The artisanal gold rush of the Sahara and the Sahel (1) 

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