The World Gold Council and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) announced on 12 October a three-year partnership to strengthen the traceability of artisanal gold and combat illicit flows. The agreement is intended to help producing countries bring more metal into declared channels.
The two organisations plan pilot projects, guidance and support for data collection. However, their statement specifies neither the countries that will host these projects, nor their budget, nor a rollout timeline. It is a framework for cooperation, with no quantified results announced at this stage.
The mechanism will rely on EITI national structures, where government officials, companies and civil society sit. The aim is to better document supply chains and make it easier for artisanal producers to access formal markets, while strengthening checks on the origin of the metal.
For African economies, the stakes relate in particular to revenues that escape official channels. In a study published in 2024, the Swiss organisation SWISSAID estimated that between 321 and 474 tonnes of gold from artisanal and small-scale mining were produced each year on the continent without being declared. This historical estimate does not measure production in 2026.
The same work, which covers all 54 African countries and more than ten years of data, found that the United Arab Emirates had imported 2,569 tonnes of African gold between 2012 and 2022 without a corresponding export declaration in the countries of departure. SWISSAID notably recommended harmonising taxation and tightening controls to reduce losses of public revenue.