DRC estimates losses from illegal mineral trafficking at one billion dollars a year

Kinshasa believes that neighbouring Rwanda is the main beneficiary of mineral trafficking from the DRC. © AFP/John Wessels

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3 min

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 smuggled through neighboring countries, first and foremost Rwanda and Uganda.

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The profits of tons of gold, but also 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 with the Financial Times earlier this week, at one billion dollars per year. And for the latter, neighboring Rwanda would be the big beneficiary of this trafficking.

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It's hard to know how much crosses through illegal channels, says Jacques Mukena, a governance and economics specialist at the Congolese Institute for Research on Policy, 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 how much these two countries export. This does not correspond to their local production. It gives indicators. This is a real shortfall for the DRC, confirms in any case the expert.

A partnership with the Emirates

To combat illegal gold exports, Congolese authorities partnered with the United Arab Emirates and created Primera Gold DRC. The objective for the joint venture is to formally capture the precious metal mined in South Kivu. "Primera Gold buys gold directly from artisanal miners based in the DRC and exports it to the UAE. To make it more formal and also no longer pass, no longer depend, Rwanda and Uganda, says Jacques Mukena. And Primera Gold will formalize that.

A few days ago, the Minister of Finance stated 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 denies Rwanda's involvement

In his last conference, in early 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 said, justifying in particular that his country had its own resources in gold and coltan for example.

Already under US sanctions, Alain Goetz, head of the gold refinery in Uganda, was added to the European Union's sanctions list at the end of the year. He is accused of profiting from the armed conflict in eastern DRC and engaging in the illicit trade in gold mines in the country.

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Read on on the same topics:

• DRC
• Raw materials
• Rwanda
• Uganda
• Criminality