DRC’s Prime Minister Emphasizes Need for Gold Traceability Measures
The Prime Minister of the Congolese Government, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, insisted on the establishment of gold traceability mechanisms to put an end to illicit trafficking.
He spoke on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, in Kinshasa, at the opening of the ICGLR Regional Forum on artisanal gold mining.
“The traceability of gold has thus become a crucial issue in the region, leading many countries and national and international organizations to engage in the establishment of traceability mechanisms for gold from the Great Lakes.
This will make it possible to eliminate harmful practices and guarantee responsible, ethical and legal exploitation of marketed gold, thus guaranteeing peace and non-financing of insecurity, declared Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.
The objective pursued by this forum is to find ways and means to stabilize the illicit exploitation of gold and to allow good development in this sector which still remains dangerous for the operators.
The gold trade in the Great Lakes region, according to Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde, is a vital economic activity for the DRC and for the entire region.
However, he added, this unfortunately generates serious problems such as illegal mining, financing of conflicts of all kinds, human rights violations and environmental deterioration.
At the end of the meeting, the Forum should result in a regional mineral monitoring system, a guarantee of a sustainable solution for responsible gold trade in the Great Lakes region.
According to experts, the DRC loses around a billion dollars per year following losses linked to illegal mineral trafficking.
As a result, mineral trafficking in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been documented by various NGO and UN reports.
According to the US Treasury, for example, more than 90% of the gold produced in the DRC is smuggled through neighboring countries, notably Rwanda and Uganda.
Based on a UN investigation, Congolese Minister of Finance Nicolas Kazadi, during the press briefing held on Monday August 28, 2023, indicated that 50% of the gold exported by Rwanda comes from the DRC. The same is true for 90% of Coltan marketed by the land of a thousand hills.
