Darfur 24 has obtained information confirming that Al-Junaid Company, which is owned by the family of the Leader of the Rapid Support Forces, produces 150 kilos of gold a day, from its Gold mines in Sengo area, in South Darfur State.
However,Miners at Singo mines, confirmed presence of an airstrip inside one of the Al-Junaid mines, saying that they had seen several times a plane landing and taking off, without checking whether it was transporting gold or something else.
According to some miners, Rapid Support Forces in the mine prevent approaching the headquarters of the Junaid Company in the mine, vowing deterrent penalties for those who come close to the gold firm.
It’s worth noting that Al-Junaid is a private company owned by the family of the Vice-President of the Transitional Sovereign Council, Lieutenant-General Mohammed Hamdan Hamidati, previously accused of sending about $ 30 million of gold bars to Dubai, which weighs about a ton.
The company is located east of the Aghbash mine with a distance of about a kilometer, and the company uses cyanide to extract gold, which makes its production much more than than the production of traditional gold mining.
Traditional miners complain that Al-Junaid Company takes the mining waste known as the carta without charge, which is the remainder of the sand after grinding stones and mixing it with mercury, but the Al-Junaid company workers say they take the Carta in exchange for providing security in the mine.
Darfur24 has learned through interviews with miners in the “Sengu area in South Darfur that the daily production of the Al-Junaid company is close to 150 kg per day, which is twice what all the traditional miners in the mine can produce.
Inforemd sources stated that cyanide is more capable of extracting gold compared to mercury, while authorities allow traditional miners to use mercury only, which made the production of all traditional mines does not exceed 73 kg per day.
Mohamed Babiker, owner of stone grinding mill, told Darfur 24 ” the highest gold production per day is 73 kilogram, while the production of Al-Junaid Company doubles the production of the whole mines in the area”.
Babiker, indicated that the Aghbash mine had 805 water and windmills, that grind 1610 bags of stones per day ,at a time when each was was estimated to produce three grams of gold.
Smuggling of Gold
apart from Al-Junaid company, smuggling of gold is also carried out individually, for the most prominent reasons being the monopoly of buying by one company according to government decisions, alongside the deterioration of the Sudanese pound, with which the value of gold decreases globally, according to the miners.
Miners at Sengo mines confirmed that gold smuggling takes place via motorbike, benefiting from the open and extended borders between Sudan and western neighboring countries, such as Chad and Central Africa. Saying that smugglers hide gold between folds of clothes and in sensitive parts of the body.
A goldsmith in the Sengo mines, Yasser Ibrahim Hassan, tells Darfur 24 that smuggling takes place as a result of facilities granted by neighboring countries that encourage producers to smuggle gold to them, adding, “There is a second reason for smuggling, is the low price of gold in Khartoum, where gold prices in Khartoum sometimes equals to price here in the gold mine, in addition to the deterioration of the Sudanese pound against foreign currencies is a third reason for smuggling”
He pointed to the policies of the previous regime regarding the monopoly of buying gold, which contributed greatly to the increase in smuggling operations, but today the matter differed slightly after the dismantling of the monopoly, and producers were able to sell their gold as they wish.