KHARTOUM: Sudanese mining minister Ahmed al-Karouri has complained that citizens of a neighbouring country were active in the smuggling of his country’s gold , calling for due policies to stem the practice.
Addressing his ministry’s consultative council, Thursday, Karouri said the citizens of a neighbouring country he did not name “carry out a well concerted plan to smuggle gold through huge financial persuasions and bribes”.
He called for a gold stock market to be launched, in addition to a continued effort to legalize and organize traditional mining activities.
Khartoum strives to overcome the economic shock resulting from the cession of South Sudan in 2011-that led the country to lose the bulk of its oil revenues – via the exploitation of gold that generated 1.8 billion U.S Dollars in 2015.
A ministry of mining report says Sudan had produced 82.3 tons of gold in 2015, an increase of 12 % from that of 2014. Traditional miners had produced 67.5 of this quantity. Officially contracted companies had taken 14.8 tons from this produce.
The report says that the central bank (The Bank of Sudan) had purchased 17.4 tons from this gold output, whereas gold exported by companies had totalled 8.1 tons, gold exported to be manufactured and returned 1.2 tons and locally manufactured gold had exceeded the 2.5 ton limit.
Early in December Karuri had announced that he was expecting the gold output to reach 100 tons in 2016, bringing Sudan to the second place in Africa and the 9th in the World.
