ROME – Billions of dollars in gold – we learn from African Manager – they are smuggled out of Africa every year, and most end up in the United Arab Emirates, where they are refined and sold to customers around the world. That’s according to a report that more than $30 billion worth of gold, or more than 435 tons, was smuggled out of the continent in 2022. The main destinations for African gold are the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Switzerland.
Undeclared gold and undistributed resources. The report’s authors say their goal is to make Africa’s gold trade more transparent and to put pressure on industry players to do more to make gold supply traceable and more responsible sourcing of gold chains, especially in intent to improve the living conditions of local populations and the working conditions of artisanal miners throughout Africa, as underlined by Yvan Schulz, one of the authors of the report, which states that between 32% and 41% of the gold produced in Africa is not declared.
The Emirates are the masters. As of 2022, Ghana was the largest gold producer in Africa, followed by Mali and South Africa. The UAE is by far the largest destination for smuggled gold, the report said, with around 405 tonnes of undeclared production coming from Africa. Over a ten-year period (2012-2022), this amounted to 2,569 tons of gold, worth approximately $115 billion.
