Sudan aims to increase gold production in 2018

Gold bars. (Reuters)

KHARTOUM: Sudan is aiming to raise its production of gold to 110 tons in 2018 to become the ninth biggest producer in the world and the second biggest in Africa, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
China is the world’s largest producer of gold, at 450 tons per year.
The Sudanese Ministry of Minerals, through its supervisory and technical arm (the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company), said in a statement on Wednesday that its production of gold amounted to 103 tons up until December, and that this figure was equal to 107% of this year’s production target.
The company also said that total revenues amounted to SDG1.9 billion ($0.27 million).
Sudan has seen significant activity in the extraction and exploration of gold during the past five years, and more than 450 local and international companies operate in this field.
The Ministry of Minerals plans to regulate the traditional mining market and establish about 40 gold-trading markets. It announced on Wednesday that it plans to set up an international gold stock exchange at the beginning of 2018 to curb smuggling of the precious metal. Sudan exports only one quarter of the gold that it produces while the rest is smuggled.
It is expected that the new stock exchange will help to stop these illegal practices.
Minister of Minerals Hashim Ali Salem said in a press statement that Sudan had only consumed one percent of its reserves of gold and other minerals, which is estimated at 500 tons of gold and 1.5 billion tons of iron, in addition to precious and rare stones.
The minister also revealed a plan to nationalize the production of 18 minerals including salt, mica, white sand and marble.