NEAL Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater said law enforcement authorities should target crime kingpins if they want to stamp out illegal gold mining.
Froneman, who is also chair of the World Gold Council, told BusinessLive illegal gold mining was ultimately controlled by sophisticated criminal gangs and terrorist groups.
“We need to be more proactive in terms of arresting the illegal miners and charging them, but also not just focusing on the miners but the organised crime and corruption that’s linked to illegal mining,” he told the publication.
“The money is laundered and some of it is used for terror financing, which is where we’ve got to chop it out … You’ve got to start at the top,” he said.
Froneman’s comments come amid a stand-off between police and illegal miners at the Buffelsfontein mine near Stilfontein. The high court at the weekend dismissed an application seeking to compel the government and police to provide emergency relief to the miners.
“I welcome that the police are actually doing something now, because it starts becoming a message that if you do this you’re going to get arrested … But you cannot ignore human rights,” Froneman said.
Commenting in 2023, after being appointed along with Remgro CEO Jannie Durand in leading a business-government initiative against crime and corruption, Froneman said: “We know who they [the criminal gangs] are and we will disrupt them, we will chop them off at their knees”.
“The fact that you have government announcing this business-government initiative on crime and corruption the way they did has changed the climate,” he added.
Illegal gold mining is not, however, isolated to South Africa.
A World Gold Council report, authored by the UK’s former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab, found that Al-Qaeda and Islamic State were “getting back into the business” of terrorism using gold mined by artisanal and small scale miners in West Africa and the Sahel. Other groups such as Colombia’s FARC were now ‘diversifying’ into stolen gold while Russia was using the proceeds of illicitly procured gold to fund its war effort in Ukraine.
The council, which describes “illegal mining” as starting with artisanal and small scale gold mining (ASGM), comprises about 20% of annual gold supply, and 80% of employment in the sector.
“As with wider artisanal mining, ASGM production has increased dramatically, from up to 304 tons in 2002 to up to 669 tons in 2018,” the report said. “By 2022, it is estimated that ASGM was providing direct livelihoods for some 15 to 20 million people, and indirectly supports an additional 270 million people.”
