The analyses provide the interested public with detailed information, in the form of texts and graphics, about the state of the gold sector in the respective African countries. The analyses contain data on gold production, as well as on the countries’ gold imports and exports, in English and French.
This research provides an overview of the situation in the individual countries and aims to help combat illegal trade flows. The data collected shows, on the one hand, that a large proportion of artisanal and small-scale mined gold from African countries is smuggled, but on the other hand, it also highlights the diverse underlying factors. The first published analyses have already sparked the interest of several African media outlets that want to provide accurate information about the gold sector in a particular country.
Wide coverage
The report On the trail of African gold was published in May 2024 and received widespread international media coverage. In it, the two authors Marc Ummel and Yvan Schulz quantified for the first time the amount of gold that leaves the African continent without being declared. Through in-depth research, countless interviews and the compilation of data over a period of ten years, the authors of the gold report have concluded that between 321 and 474 tonnes of gold are produced in Africa every year without being declared. In 2022, at least 435 tonnes of gold were smuggled out of the continent.
If you are interested in data for a specific country that has not yet been published, you can send an email to africangold@swissaid.ch. We will let you know as soon as the data is available.
