Go for gold

Gold has become the hope for Sudan’s economy ever since South Sudan seceded last year, taking three quarters of the country’s oil resources with it.

Read also: "Sudan eyes gold as glittering alternative to oil revenues, but reality fogs the view" by Osman Shinger

The government claimed that gold would fill-in the gap in public finances but statistics cause reason for doubt. Economist Mohammed Ibrahim Kabbaj said there was a suspicious gap between statistics of production and revenues going as far back as the 1990s.

These huge leaps in production are attempts to assure the people after the loss of oil in the south,” Kabbaj says.

The mining ministry announced in June that the country had produced 13 tonnes of the stuff in the year up until April, worth $603 million. The minister announced the same day to parliament that a smelting factory would be built capable of producing 100 tonnes of gold a year.

Get rich quick dreams tantalised young men who left their villages to head for artisanal mining sites in the north and west of the country. There has been an explosion in sales of metal detectors in Khartoum and high public demand.

The gold mine in Hadal Awatib East - Photo by Francois Bouf

But despite the jobs the artisanal industry has provided, many experts say it also has drawbacks; such as damage to geological formations and the obstruction of commercial mining. Artisanal miners are unaware of the properties of rocks and what the structures will bear. There have been many fatal accidents, particularly in the triangle near the Libyan and Egyptian borders.

Economist Mohammed al-Nayer says production figures are accurate, but mask the limited contribution to government finances.

Since most gold mining is artisanal, the state, which buys the gold produced at market prices, does not benefit directly from it,” he says. But former finance minister Tijani al-Tayyib doubts the figures, saying gold, like oil, is a global commodity with volatile pricing.

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He doubts the quantity produced can fill the budget gap left by oil. Even government figures state $2 billion a year to the treasury compared to a hole of $7-8 billion left by oil,” he says.

Al-Tayyib also points out most mining, being artisanal, does not represent income to the state.

Official figures say there are 88 big” and over 500 small” companies who hold licenses to work in Sudan. But in practice the operations of large companies are very limited. Their activity is hampered by a lack of financing, deteriorating security in some provinces, and the rising costs of deploying and maintaining equipment.

The gold market in Khartoum - Photo by Jeffery Wong

Views differ about the economic payback of mining at a popular level. Some miners endure harsh conditions in the desert with nothing to show for it while others gather a few grams, which are enough to improve their lives. But everyone agrees that the life is fraught with dangers. There have been many disasters in the mining areas of northern Sudan, ranging from fatal accidents and injuries to conflict between miners and local inhabitants in some places.