Illegal gold mining and trading
Governments of several African nations have noted that gold is becoming a vehicle of vast, cross-border criminal operations. Gold’s fungibility has always made it a liquid, undetectable form of payment, but the growth in illegal mining and trading can be attributed to a confluence of factors. These include weak state control in parts of Africa, a global network of traders specialising in sanctions evasion, Chinese operators entering the sector and gold’s low-weight and high value making it an attractive mineral to smuggle, and relatively hard to trace.
Gold bar forgeries are sophisticated, and the usage of fake bars is likely to continue to rise, facilitating more criminal activities.
West African or Sudanese gold will find its way to global markets, no matter how it was mined.
Gold will continue to be trafficked from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, aided by foreign trading networks.
