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David Clement: Putin’s African ‘blood gold’ is financing his Ukrainian war—and Canada’s mining companies are turning a blind eye

Commentary

Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the Transition of the Republic of Mali, Assimi Goita, shake hands in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 27, 2023. Mikhail Metzel/TASS Host Photo Agency Pool Photo via AP.

Standing up to tyranny, wherever it may be found, is part of Canada’s DNA. Canadians recently marked the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a solemn reminder of the high price our forefathers paid to support democracy on the global stage. This commitment is as vigorous today as it was then.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Canada has committed CAD $352.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Kyiv. These significant funds have helped provide desperately needed food, medicine, and shelter to Ukrainians as they stave off waves of Russian attacks.

In this context, Canadians will be outraged to learn that, while their hard-earned taxes are helping Ukrainians survive Russia’s onslaught, elements of their country’s business community are busy contributing enormous sums of money to Putin’s allies and associates, the same allies and associates who in turn are funnelling hundreds of millions towards the Kremlin’s war machine. The business community in question is Canada’s gold mining sector.

Since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion in January 2022, just two Canadian mining companies—Barrick Gold and B2Gold—have paid CAD $1.8 billion in taxes, royalties, and dividends to Mali’s Russia-backed military regime.CAD $1.8 billion is reached by adding Barrick Gold’s total 2022 and 2023 tax payments to Mali (including Tax, Royalties & Dividends) with B2 Gold’s total 2022 and 2023 total tax payments. Barrick Gold paid USD $298m in 2022 & USD $380.7m in 2023. Total tax = $727M USD (Tax, Royalties & Dividends) = $994M CAD. B2Gold paid USD $298m in 2022 & USD $297mm in 2023. Total = $595M USD (Tax, Royalties & Dividends) = $817M CAD

Not that long ago Mali had a reputation for relative political stability—its restive north notwithstanding—and robust democratic foundations. No longer. Since the military junta seized power in 2021, the West African country has seen its democratic institutions dismantled, free media stifled, and civilians massacred.

This wide-ranging attack on Mali’s democracy and people has been made possible through the support of Russian mercenaries, the infamous Wagner Group having first arrived in the country in December 2021.

The Russian mercenary outfit has been partly reorganised since the death of its founder-leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, but its fundamental purpose—to generate chaos and revenue in Putin’s favour—has not altered and its practice in Mali is no less sharp.

The Kremlin’s interest in propping up the military junta is far from benign.

Rather it comprises part of Putin’s wider strategy to foment disorder, displace Western interests, and—most importantly from the Russian dictator’s point of view—extract vast sums of wealth from commodity-rich African countries in order to finance his destructive and costly war on Ukraine.

For the past two years and more, the Kremlin has targeted Africa’s reserves of oil, timber, and diamonds, but gold shines brightest for Putin.

In December 2023, the Blood Gold Report revealed how Russia has earned more than CAD $3.4 billion from “blood gold” since January 2022.

The main fulcrum of Putin’s blood gold system is the exchange of “security services,” typically provided by Wagner mercenaries, in return for gold-backed payments.

In the Central African Republic, the mercenary group has been granted exclusive extractive rights to the Ndassima mine, the country’s largest gold mine, in return for propping up President Touadera’s authoritarian regime. In Sudan, through control of a major refinery, Wagner has become the dominant buyer of unprocessed Sudanese gold, as well as a major smuggler of processed gold.

In Mali, Wagner is paid a retainer—CAD $14 million per month—to prop up a brutal military junta. That junta is in turn highly dependent on a small number of Western mining companies for the revenue it needs to pay Wagner. Mining companies contributed more than 50 percent of all tax revenues to the Malian state for 2022. Barrick Gold is the junta’s single biggest taxpayer.

This is not a passing phase that Canadian mining companies can simply hope to ride out.

In November 2023, a joint memorandum between Mali and Russia committed to opening a new Russian refinery in Bamako, meaning all gold mined in Mali will pass through Russian hands.

With everything that is known about Wagner’s role in Mali, you might expect that Canadian mining companies would have already suspended their operations. After all, divestment from Russia and from any position that provides a clear and obvious benefit to Putin’s war machine is a well-established principle. But that is not what is happening.

In fact, Barrick Gold’s contributions to the Russia-backed Malian state actually grew from CAD $408 million in 2022, to CAD $587 million in 2023.

History teaches us that solidarity is a fundamental precondition for victory over tyranny. On 6 June 1944, Canadians, Americans, and British troops, supported by a host of other allied nations, poured onto the beaches of Normandy. No weak link between them. In today’s context, it is vital that not only allied democratic powers stand together against Russia, but that all facets of democratic society do likewise, including industry and commerce.

Western democracies will not be able to sustain Ukraine in the long haul if Western businesses continue to deliver huge revenues to Putin’s network of allies and affiliates. Canada is rightly regarded throughout the world as a stout defender of democracy and freedom, never shirking when the need is dire.

Canadians have the right to expect the same from their mining sector. If mining executives cannot be cajoled into good practice, as seems to be the case, we must look to our political leaders to bring them back into line.

David Clement

David Clement is a co-author of The Blood Gold Report.

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