DRC: on the trail of “clean” gold in a region of conflict

The molten gold is poured into ingot moulds, while in an adjoining room the negotiation engages on the price to be paid during the day, in an unusual transparency for this region of eastern DR Congo in prey to conflicts fueled by “blood minerals”.

Last January, the Congolese government and the United Arab Emirates launched a joint venture, “Primera Gold”, to channel gold mined artisanally in the province of South Kivu into official channels.

For years, experts have established that this gold, as well as other strategic minerals with which the Congolese subsoil abounds, fuels trafficking and smuggling towards neighboring countries, in particular Rwanda with which the DRC maintains execrable relations.

“More than a ton of artisanal gold from South Kivu was crossing the border every month to these countries, which unfortunately in return are waging war on the DRC,” says Benjamin Bisimwa, assistant to the general manager of Primera Gold, who receives a AFP team in the new five-storey building rented by the company in Bukavu, the provincial capital.

In 2021, only 23 kg of gold from South Kivu were declared for export, he recalls. The following year, 34 kg. Everything else was clandestine. In mid-May, after less than five months of activity, the Congolese Minister of Finance affirmed that one ton had already been exported by Primera Gold.

“The results speak for themselves”, observes Mr. Bisimwa, even if “there remains a lot to do”. The aim is to export at least one tonne of gold each month to the Auric Hub Gold refinery in Abu Dhabi, he said.

In a small building adjoining Primera’s headquarters, the heat is intense. A laboratory technician, fireproof gloves in his hands, takes out of an oven at 1,200 degrees a crucible filled with liquid gold, which he pours into a rectangular mold. Quickly cooled, the ingot is weighed: almost 2 kg, which represents approximately 120,000 dollars.

– Supply –

Just before, the technician was cleaning three smaller ingots with a wire brush. Analyzed with an “XRF spectrometer”, the raw metal ingots reveal a gold content of 96.8%.

Very good content, underline the specialists of Primera, affirming that the gold of DRC is among the purest of the world.

Traders parade through the laboratory, bringing granules and nuggets mined from the province’s gold hills.

Primera claims to source only from “qualified” sites, that is to say sites not controlled by armed groups, which do not employ children but “diggers” duly registered and organized into cooperatives.

For many in Bukavu, the intention is laudable but difficult to implement, in a sector plagued by fraud and corruption. “A big question arises on supply,” said Blaise Bubala, head of a civil society working group on mines.

Another concern: the Congolese state owns 45% of Primera Gold and taxes and profits are supposed to fund its coffers, but then, “how much for community development?” asks Mr. Bubala.

“Building schools, roads, hospitals, that’s something we’ve always asked for,” he says.

This is also what the inhabitants of Luhihi, a locality located 25 km as the crow flies from Bukavu, are demanding, where gold appeared miraculously three years ago, causing a rush for the precious metal.

“Foreigners have come to steal our gold. And there is no compensation for us,” laments Minani Bufole, a 62-year-old butcher who shouts his anger with a handful of other demonstrators who came to disrupt a meeting of local mining authorities.

“A hill has always been there and suddenly we find gold”: necessarily, this upsets the lives of villagers more used to cultivating their fields than digging galleries, analyzes Zouzou Njangu, president of a cooperative of farmers artisanal mining.

Wearing a helmet and work clothes, she also remembers how complicated it was to explain to the diggers that they had to organize themselves, join the cooperative and have an official card.

– “In cash” –

“How do you buy a 10 dollar card when you don’t even have 200 francs (0.10 dollar) to buy a soap?” exclaims Innocent Dunia, one of the diggers on Nyenyezi hill in Luhihi. Like others, he claims to have found nothing for ages but stays there, hoping one day to find a good vein.

“See how we are, it’s shameful!”, Launches the 32-year-old man, surrounded by companions whose clothes and hair have taken on the ocher color of the earth they scratch all day long, most of them in old plastic shoes, no helmet or gloves.

The Luhihi mine is however considered as a pilot site, pioneer of the “traceability” put forward by Primera Gold.

Company managers recognize that there is still work to be done in social matters as well. For example, they promised that 10,000 gold diggers and their families would have health insurance.

But the list of potential beneficiaries has not yet reached them, they say.

“We will take up the challenges together”, assures Benjamin Bisimwa, counting on the “political will” which seems to be asserting itself.

The Kinshasa authorities launched Primera Gold but also hit hard on May 1, when soldiers raided several purchasing counters in Bukavu, seizing gold, dollars, safes and computers, arresting around twenty people, including officials suspected of complicity.

“We are in psychosis”, indignantly an employee of one of the counters targeted, pointing to the broken doors, the scattered papers…

Primera executives say they have nothing to do with this heavy-handed operation but welcome it nonetheless, noting that the quantities of gold handled by the company have since increased significantly.

Before becoming “main buyer” of Primera, Jean-Jacques Mayah, president of ore traders in South Kivu, practiced his trade for 22 years with the counters now singled out. “They bought in cash, we were used to this circuit… Now things are getting in order”.