Using Wagner Group, Kremlin earns billions from African gold trade – investigation

The Kremlin made more than US$2.5 billion from the African gold trade after launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and it continues to do so using the so-called Wagner group.

Source: an investigation by Blood Gold Report, a group investigating links between Western mining companies, military regimes and Russian mercenaries in Africa

Thus, it was established that in the Central African Republic (CAR), a Wagner front company received exclusive rights to the Ndassima mine, the largest gold mine in the country, in exchange for support for the authoritarian regime.

In Sudan, a "Russian company" took control of a major oil refinery, which allowed Wagner to become the dominant buyer of Sudan's raw gold, with several accounts of Russian military transport planes delivering processed gold out of the country.

In Mali, the military junta, linked to Wagner, which seized control of the country in May 2021, receives millions in revenue by controlling the four largest mining companies – Barrick Gold Corporation, B2Gold, Resolute Mining and Allied Gold Corporation. Moreover, most of the income goes in cash – at least US$10.8 million per month. And there are even buyers from the Western countries. For example, the Canadian company Barrick Gold – the country's largest taxpayer – paid US$206 million to the junta of Mali in the first half of 2023 alone.

In the CAR and Sudan, where Wagner-linked organisations are already subject to international sanctions, Kremlin proxies rely on sophisticated smuggling routes and corporate underhand tactics to get large volumes of blood gold out of Africa to places like Russia and the UAE, where it is mixed with other legitimate sources of gold and converted into cash.

The Blood Gold report also contains a series of recommendations – a set of measures to disrupt Wagner and Russia's operations with African gold and deal a major financial blow to the Kremlin.

These measures include:

• expanding the penalties to automatically target any organisation that hires Wagner's security services, making sure Wagner's supporters receive just compensation;
• imposing strict supply chain restrictions to stop the entrance of blood gold;
• demanding accountability from multinational mining corporations doing business with governments and groups that hire and support Wagner;
• declare Wagner a terrorist organisation and bring the International Criminal Court to Wagner's mercenary group's defence to guarantee justice;
• strengthen cooperation between international partners and allies to fill in any inadequacies in the current sanctions' framework;
• increased assistance to independent media, civil society organisations, and democratic regimes in Africa that are both directly and indirectly threatened by Wagner's operations on the continent would help to fortify local resistance to Wagner's hybrid strategies and show strength against meddling from the Kremlin.

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