DAKAR – Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned gold trading house plans to boost the volume of metal it sells from the country’s artisanal mining sector to 15 metric tons this year, with the central bank potentially a key buyer.
Congo, the world’s top supplier of battery metals and home to vast untapped gold reserves, set up DRC Gold Trading in December 2022 as a joint venture with the United Arab Emirates. In the past three years it has bought only 10 tons of gold for trading.
The government took full ownership in 2024 to channel artisanal gold into formal export routes, mirroring clean-up drives seen across Africa.
DRC Gold Trading signed an agreement with Congo’s central bank in February giving it priority access to all gold it collects for use in building national reserves.
Central banks worldwide are increasingly stocking up on bullion as a hedge against uncertainty.
PUSH TO SHORE UP DOMESTIC RESERVES
DRC Gold Trading CEO Joseph Kazibaziba told Reuters that pricing of gold to the central bank would follow international benchmarks and national regulations, while delivery volumes would depend on the central bank’s requests under the February agreement.
More than 45 foreign buyers have requested gold supply from DRC Gold Trading, though domestic reserve accumulation remains the priority, Kazibaziba said.
He said the company, which until 2023 bought barely 25 kilograms of artisanal gold a year for trading, is expanding operations across eight provinces as it races to meet surging demand.
“The quantity to be delivered will depend on (the central bank’s) demand,” he said. “Everything is being done to ensure that we fully meet our obligations.”
The central bank has not commented on its gold reserve targets.
Surging bullion prices have driven a boom in informal gold mining across Africa, where weak oversight allows much of the output to be smuggled instead of entering official markets.
