Gold Smuggling News: UN Says Networks From Congo to #Dubai - Bloomberg

Gold Smuggling News: UN Says Networks From Congo to Dubai - Bloomberg:

Gold smuggling from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is costing the impoverished country millions of dollars in tax revenue and funding conflict and criminal networks that stretch across Africa and beyond, according to a United Nations Group of Experts report.

Congo’s official exports of hand-dug gold bear almost no relation to reality, the group said Friday, with smuggled gold ending up in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, the United Arab Emirates and Tanzania.

Congo is one of the “region’s largest artisanal gold producers, and yet one of its smallest official exporters,” the group said in its annual report on Congo’s ongoing conflicts published on the website of the UN Security Council.

Official production of artisanal gold in Congo was 333.4 kilograms (735 pounds) last year, while the country only exported 39.4 kilograms worth about $1.3 million, according to Mines Ministry statistics.