CLAIM: In 2022 about 24,000kg of gold produced by artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) were declared against an estimated 78,000kg that went undeclared.
SOURCE: NewsDay
VERDICT: False
The NewsDay, a privately-owned daily newspaper on 3 June 2024 carried a story on its website under the headline: ‘Zim a top 5 gold smuggler.’ In the story, in which a SwissAid report is cited as a source, the publication claims that Zimbabwe is one of the top five African countries reportedly smuggling gold and in 2022 declared about 24,000kg of gold produced by artisanal and small scale miners (ASM) were declared against an estimated 78,000kg that went undeclared.
According to the 2024 SWISS AID report titled: ‘On The Trail of African Gold: Quantifying production and trade to combat illicit flows,’ Zimbabwe is only second to Mali (both at over 50,000kg) in the list of African countries with the highest estimates of non-declared artisanal and small-scale gold production in 2022.
Contrary to what the NewsDay claims, the report puts undeclared gold at 54,000 kg, not 78,000. The 78,000kg, according to the report, is the combined declared (24,000kg) and undeclared (54,000) gold produced.
As quoted in the NewsDay article headline, the report also places Zimbabwe among the top 5 gold smugglers on the continent, with over 50,000kg being smuggled out of the country.
The SwissAid figures are unsupported by any other publicly available data. In the report, SwissAid says it got the 55,000kg amount of smuggled gold from the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association estimating that undeclared ASM gold production represents three quarters of total ASM gold production. This was in response to SwissAid survey on 14 December 2023.
The claim that Zimbabwe has over 50,000kg undeclared places Zimbabwe’s artisanal and small scale production at almost 80,000kg, which would make Zimbabwe one of the top gold producing countries.
According to the International Trade Administration, the Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe reported that gold output reached an all-time high of 37.3 tonnes in 2022, up from 31.5 tonnes in 2021, and projected to increase to 42 tonnes in 2023. Challenges faced by the sector include suspected smuggling, fuel shortages, and antiquated technology.
In its 2022 annual report, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s sole buyer of gold, through its subsidiary, Fidelity Gold Refiners, also indicates that gold production stood at 31,477.2 kg in 2021 and then went up by 18 percent in 2022 to 37,265.2. Small-scale miners, according to the same report, contributed the bulk of gold deliveries to the central bank between 2020 and 2022.
The World Gold Council reports that Zimbabwe in 2022 had gold production of 49.4 tonnes coming 8th in Africa. South Africa in comparison had 92.6 tonnes.
The CEIC is an organisation founded in 1992 by a team of expert economists and analysts. Its data on Zimbabwe gold production shows an all-time high of 37,355kg in 2022 and a record low of 3,579kg in 2008.
There are also various estimates on how much gold is being smuggled annually out of Zimbabwe. The Center for Natural Resource Governance, a Zimbabwean non governmental organisation, says that illicit financial flows (IFFs) in the artisanal mining sector in Zimbabwe are responsible for leakages of an estimated 3 tonnes of gold, valued at approximately USD157 million every month.
Various media reports have put the smuggling at an estimated US$100 million worth of gold per month. This is attributed to Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe.
These estimates put the smuggled gold amount at between 20 and 36 tonnes a year.
Conclusion
The claim that ‘in 2022 about 24,000kg of gold produced by artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) were declared against an estimated 78,000kg that went undeclared’ has been rated as false. This is because the NewsDay misquoted the data from the SwissAid report which puts total ASM gold production at 78,000kg with 24,000 being declared and 54,000 undeclared.
However, it is worth noting that the whole data from the Swiss Aid report is not supported by other data sources. The claim that ‘Zim, a top 5 gold smuggler’ is unsupported since there is no other source putting Zimbabwe’s total gold production anywhere near 78,000kg for both large and artisanal and small scale miners. Estimates put Zimbabwe’s smuggled gold between 20 and 36 tonnes, not over 50 tonnes as claimed in the SwissAid report. The 55,000kg figure is from a response to a SwissAid survey by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association whose estimates are that for every kg of declared ASM gold, there are three quarters going undeclared.
