A lens into South Sudan gold mining

In addition to artisanal mining, there are industrial-like operations concentrated in the Gorom and the Kapoeta areas where deposits are believed to be in abundance.

But the government has limited control over how transactions in gold are done, or who is involved. Local dealers buy gold from artisanal miners and sell it to larger buyers in regional towns, such as Kapoeta and Juba. 

Most of the gold produced in South Sudan is smuggled out of the country. The main supply chains run from South Sudan across Uganda and Kenya and it also moves to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, and then to international markets in Dubai and China.

The main border posts used for this purpose are Nimule-Elegu and Kaya bordering Uganda, and gold is smuggled into Kenya through the Nadapal-Lokichogio border post. For gold moving by air, it flies from Juba International Airport to Kampala, Dubai, and China.

In the capital Juba, various groups of actors are active in the illicit gold market. Sudanese, Ugandans, Kenyans, and Chinese nationals, as well as political and business elites, are all active in the gold trade.

Although they all deny, watchdog groups and our interviewees on the ground point at the country’s powerful leaders for having links to the country’s highly secretive gold mining business.

Because it is secretive, the government has no records of how much quantity it is producing, or how much forex it earns. But export data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), in 2019, show South Sudan exported $47.6 million in gold to the United Arab Emirates, making it the second most exported product to crude oil.