SUDAN NEWS ALERT: Bloomberg - How a Sanctioned Russian Company Gained Access to Sudan’s Gold
Commercial Registry documents seen by Bloomberg provided the first evidence that the gold mining compound in Atbara is owned by Meroe Gold, a company the US Treasury says has ties to the Wagner Group, which it describes as a mercenary company connected to the Russian Ministry of Defence. In addition to access to lucrative mineral deposits, Meroe has licenses to operate in Sudanese industries ranging from transport and agriculture to plastics, Bloomberg revealed.
Dozens of miners, executives, engineers, consultants and analysts in Sudan interviewed by Bloomberg said that Wagner’s relationship with the administration of ex-president Omar al-Bashir helped Meroe secure an operating permit and access to cheap, semi-processed gold ore extracted by small-scale operators.
Furthermore, anonymous US and UK officials said that Meroe had intensified work at the project site since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.