According to a new study published by the NGO Swissaid, between 321 and 474 tonnes of artisanal gold are produced each year in Africa without being declared and at least 435 tonnes of gold were smuggled from the African continent in 2022 alone .
At the price of gold on May 1, 2024, this corresponds to a value of USD 30.7 billion. The overwhelming majority of this gold was imported into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before being re-exported to other countries.
The results of the same study show that in 2022, 66.5% (405 tonnes) of gold imported into the UAE from Africa was smuggled out of African countries. Between 2012 and 2022, 2,569 tonnes of African gold imported into the UAE was not declared for export to African countries. At the average price of gold over these eleven years, this corresponds to a total value of 115.3 billion US dollars.
Twelve African countries are involved in the smuggling of more than 20 tonnes of gold per year. The most significant gold smuggling concerns Mali, Ghana and Zimbabwe. Gold smuggling in Africa more than doubled between 2012 and 2022.
The vast majority of African gold is transported to a very limited number of countries. The UAE, Switzerland and India were the three main countries importing gold from Africa between 2012 and 2022. In 2022, almost 80% of African gold imported abroad was in these three countries, including more than 47% in the UAE. These percentages are even higher if we correct for artificial statistical differences.
African industrial gold was mainly exported to South Africa, Switzerland and India, while 80-85% of African ASM gold was exported to the UAE.
Between 2012 and 2022, the majority of declared intra-African gold trade was destined for South Africa. However, most of the African gold imported into this country was subsequently re-exported to non-African countries.
At the production level, the results of the study show that itvery year, between 321 tonnes and 474 tonnes of gold from artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) are not declared for production in Africa (which corresponds to a value between 23.7 and 35 billion USD to the price of gold on May 1, 2024).
Note that several African countries have no gold production or a gold production of less than 100 kg per year. This concerns: Cape Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Mauritius, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles and Tunisia.
