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Gold

Congo - Kinshasa to United Arab Emirates

Checked 2026-09-29

Public law and official guidance, published as research. Not legal, tax or financial advice.

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Congo - KinshasaUnited Arab Emirates

The pair had a state-level gold arrangement from December 2022 to 2024. Primera Gold DRC, a joint venture of the DRC (45%) and UAE-registered Primera Group (55%), held 25-year exclusive rights to buy South Kivu artisanal gold and paid a reported 0.25% export tax against about 6% for competitors. It exported more than 5 t to the UAE in 2023 and closed in 2024. There is no current bilateral duty preference (0% UAE duty applies anyway). Under DRC law only exploitation-right holders, processing entities and approved comptoirs may export (Code minier art. 5); since 17 Aug 2026 gold exported by the BCC or its mandataire for reserves, including for refining abroad, is exempt from the EB exchange declaration (BCC Règlement 001/26), but no destination is named. Most Congolese gold reaching the UAE is smuggled via Uganda and Rwanda.

How sure this page is

  • Secondary 3
  • Researcher's note 1
  • Not recorded 1
  • Not stated 1

Where practice departs from the law

What credible sources show happening that the law does not provide for.

  • The DRC reported no HS 710812 exports to UN Comtrade for 2023, so the UAE figures cannot be checked against Congolese filings.

    Secondary

  • Researchers found Primera-traded gold sourced from areas with armed groups, child labour and illegal dredging in a protected forest, with gaps in oversight by banks, auditors and the regional certification mechanism. Where the revenue went is unclear.

    SecondaryNot recorded

  • After Primera collapsed, the flow shifted to transit countries. Rwanda exported 19.4 t (US$1.5bn) in 2024 against about 2.9 t of domestic production, mainly to the UAE. The EU sanctioned Rwanda's Gasabo Gold Refinery in March 2025 for transiting illegally mined Congolese gold.

    Secondary

    Researcher's note: The DRC module (cd.div-rwanda-refinery) reports this as a US sanction; the EU attribution comes from this source only.

What we could not obtain

Documents the research needed and could not get, where they might be, and why.

No gaps recorded

Routes using this pair

Sources