A small-scale gold milling business outside the town of Atbara in Sudan’s River Nile State on Oct 12.
Photographer: Simon Marks/Bloomberg
The Big Take
Dubai Can’t Shake Off the Stain of Smuggled African Gold
The UAE rejects any involvement in illegal practices. African exporters say tons of their gold goes missing in Dubai every year.
In the moon-like landscape of northern Sudan, informal gold miners toil with spades and pickaxes to extract their prize from shallow pits that pockmark the terrain.
Mining ore in the sweltering heat of the Nubian desert is the first stage of an illicit network that has exploded in the past 18 months following a pandemic-induced spike in the gold price. African governments desperate to recoup lost revenue are looking to Dubai to help stop the trade.