Sudan Recorded Highest Gold Production in 2022
Highest Gold Production in 2022
The Sudanese Mineral Resources Company announced that it recorded the highest gold production in 2022, the best in its history. The company said the total amount of gold produced was 18 tons and 637 kilograms in 2022, a rise from the previous year.
In a country where the economy has been struggling and international aid is drying up, mining remains a lifeline for many. But the industry is awash in corruption and money that’s smuggled out of the country.
As many as two million artisanal miners mine for the yellow metal in semi-legal operations that often have ramshackle infrastructure and poor safety standards. In fact, the artisanal mining sector accounts for 80% of the nation’s gold production.
However, some analysts say the industry is in decline and isn’t likely to return to its pre-2011 glory days. The economy is expected to shrink by more than 50% this year, and mining companies are likely to struggle to survive despite rising prices.
More than 50% of Sudan’s gold is smuggled out of the country, with the proceeds going to fund internal conflict. The Central Bank of Sudan says smuggled gold is worth between $50 and $80 million per ton, and it’s estimated that 85% of this goes through Russia.
It’s believed that Russia has benefited from government blind spots to siphon more than $1 billion of Sudanese gold in the past decade. But experts say that most of that is hidden from the official record, and it’s unclear how much has actually been removed.
Sudan Recorded Highest Gold Production in 2022
According to the New York Times, one of the Russian companies behind this smuggling is Meroe Gold. It’s registered in Sudan, but it’s run by a US Treasury sanctioned Russian businessman named Prigozhin. He’s also accused of ties to the Wagner Group, a Russia-based mercenary company that has been linked to human rights abuses in Syria and Libya.
That’s according to a whistleblower who has been monitoring the smuggling operations for years. He claims that some of the Russian companies have been in Sudan for years, and have been involved in the smuggling of a massive amount of gold.
Some of this gold is shipped to the United Arab Emirates, where it’s refined and stamped as an emirate product before being reexported to other countries. Some of that gold ends up in China, and a smaller amount is sent to Russia.
But the most striking aspect of smuggling in Sudan is that it’s all happening off-the-books, largely through helter-skelter sales. This is the heart of the problem for Russia, which dominates the market.
This has resulted in a massive amount of unaccounted gold in the Sudanese Central Bank’s records, which amounts to about $1.9 billion at current prices. That’s more than the value of Sudan’s entire mining output in 2021, according to a spokesman for the Central Bank who provided CNN with a spreadsheet.
The smuggling of Sudan’s gold is done through a network of helter-skelter companies, and sources tell CNN that Russia is at the forefront. They say that Russia’s involvement is a key reason why the Central Bank hasn’t been able to track gold exports.