Does smuggling gold also land in Switzerland?

Illégal gold is mainly transported to the United Arab Emirates.Keystone

A new study reveals the magnitude of illegal gold export from the African continent. Dubai generally serves as a gateway to the legal market – thus allowing this gold to land in Switzerland.

Pascal Michel / ch media

Each day, more than a ton of smuggling gold leaves the African continent. In a new study, the non -governmental organization Swissaid examined data from 54 African countries: in 2022, smugglers exported at least 435 tonnes in total. This study is the first to put a figure on the extent of the problem. During the current course, smuggling gold represents a value of $ 31 billion.

To encrypt the smuggling of gold, the authors of the study compared export and import data worldwide. They could thus see that African gold appeared in importing countries when it had never been officially exported from the continent. According to the study, 41 of the 54 African countries extract at least 100 kilograms of gold each year as part of small -scale craft mining operations. But fifteen of these countries officially declare any export. The problem is particularly important in Ghana, Mali and Zimbabwe. According to the study, the smuggling of gold more than doubled between 2012 and 2022.

Where does this precious metal go?

Illégal gold is mainly transported to the United Arab Emirates. Dubai, in particular, has become a hub for gold from questionable sources. The study estimates that over the past eleven years, 2569 tonnes of African gold have been illegally exported to Dubai for a value of $ 115.3 billion.

In many African countries, millions of people depend on small -scale craft mining to earn a living. The increase in the price of gold recently made this activity all the more attractive. Swissaid observes “a hasty and uncontrolled development of craft, small, even semi-mechanized mines, in which working conditions are often catastrophic”.

They are often peasants who, after harvest, themselves go in search of gold. The problem is that they thus escape all state control. The consequences are not limited to a loss of tax revenue for countries. In the absence of state control, child labor, forced labor, environmental pollution or the financing of terrorism cannot be excluded either.

The track also leads to Switzerland

Golden minors on a small scale sell their finds to intermediaries or local refineries, who then make him come out of Africa.

Either he arrives by land in another African country, from where he is exported to Dubai, or he is directly sent by plane to Dubai. “There, the authorities do not ask questions. As soon as he is repeated in Dubai, any trace of his illegal origin disappears ”.

The track also leads to Switzerland, where four of the largest gold refineries in the world sit. Each year, Switzerland imports tons of gold from Africa. Added to this is African gold routed from the Arab Emirates.

Between 2012 and 2022, 1670 tonnes of African gold arrived in Switzerland via the Arab Emirates. “There is a considerable risk that a part of this gold comes from African smuggling,” explains Schulz.

If we look at customs statistics, gold is marked as coming from the United Arab Emirates. The place of extraction, for example, Ghana, disappears completely.

Swissaid therefore requests, among other things, more transparency and addresses a whole catalog of claims to the various players in the gold sector. In the case of Switzerland, the NGO hopes for a breakthrough during the next revision of the Customs Act. The Council of States will discuss it in the fall. Swissaid believes that it is essential to “strengthen the legal framework and improve the traceability of raw materials”.

“Gold of dubious origin has no place in Switzerland”

The association of manufacturers and merchants in precious metals is also favorable to certain hardening. The association stresses that its members do not buy gold from the United Arab Emirates. “Gold of dubious origin has no place in Switzerland,” replies the association on request.

The Ticino refinery Valcambi, which left the association last year due to “irreconcilable differences”, is an exception in Switzerland. The refinery would have taken the door following an argument on the way in which the branch was to position itself in relation to the gold purchases from Dubai. Valcambi wanted to maintain trade relations with the emirate:

Because this would amount to admitting that we are unable to “make a reasonable diligence corresponding to the inherent risks of gold trade”.

Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci

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