In Sudan’s war economy, gold keeps flowing as miners risk mercury and collapse
DAGALO MAHAS, Sudan (AP) — Men carried metal detectors as they scoured a mountainous area in northern Sudan looking for gold. Without even the most basic safety precautions, a man knelt down to use a pickaxe to examine the ground for the precious metal.
These are unregulated miners who work at a small-scale private gold mine in the northern town of Dalgo Mahas. The mine is one of thousands of small-scale and artisanal mines scattered across Sudan; part of an industry that has at times been at the center of devastating warfare. Part of the country is falling into famine.
Gold became an important source of financing for the Sudanese treasury after the country lost more than two-thirds of its oil revenues with the secession of South Sudan in 2011. The precious metal accounted for 70% of national income in the years following South Sudan’s secession, providing the Sudanese government with much-needed foreign currency.
Recently, gold has been at the center of the ongoing war between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. According to experts commissioned by the United Nations, large amounts of gold were smuggled out of the country to finance paramilitary forces that control gold-producing areas in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.
At least 59,000 people died in the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based war monitoring group, which said that figure is almost certainly an underestimate, given difficulties in reporting.
The war has also created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, forcing more than 10 million people to flee their homes. Many displaced people joined the mining industry to provide for their families.
“The only thing I can trust is gold mining,” said Atta al-Hazin, a 28-year-old miner who left his previous profession as a farmer. “Due to high oil prices, agriculture can no longer cover the costs.”
Zahir Adam, a 35-year-old father from Al-Fasher in Darfur, has been working in gold mining for more than a decade and said the sector has attracted many people since the start of the war three years ago.
“They had no choice,” he said. “Many young people and many families depend on mining.”
According to official figures, Sudan increased its gold production from 64 tons in 2024 to 70 tons last year, making it one of the largest producers in Africa. Figures from the state-run Sudan Mineral Resources Company showed gold generating revenues of around $1.8 billion in 2025.
The majority of gold mined in the growing country, where safety standards are largely ignored, is obtained through artisanal and small-scale gold mining.
Artisanal miners, like the men at Dalgo Nahas, often extract the gold, then crush the ore before applying toxic mercury to create the amalgam. The amalgam is then heated, usually in a furnace, to evaporate the mercury and recover the gold.
The process, which involves the use of hazardous chemicals, is also risky for people living near the mines.
Most of these mines are not controlled by the government. In its 2024 report, the UN expert delegation said that more than 50 percent of the gold mined in Sudan was not traded through official channels but was smuggled out of the country.
Fatal mine collapses are not uncommon in Sudan, where safety standards are not widely enforced. At least seven miners lost their lives in a mine collapse in the Red Sea province last month. In January, another 13 people died in another collapse in South Kordofan province.
A civilian transitional government that ruled the country for more than a year after the military ouster of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 has sought to regulate the vital sector.
However, their efforts were foiled by the military coup in October 2021 and the war that started in 2023.
