Rising SA gold theft funding 'terrorism, human trafficking'

Increasing gold theft from South African mines was funding international terrorism and human trafficking and amounted to a global money-laundering operation of huge magnitude, Pan African Resources CEO Jan Nelson said yesterday.

"Dirty money is coming in and clean gold is going out," Nelson stated during the company's annual results presentation, where Pan African reported a 15% increase in underground gold production and 30% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. “It's a money-laundering operation on a huge scale. We have to attack this problem at various levels and the role players are interacting and there is assistance from government," he said.

Pan African's security costs have risen to close to 3%, which represents a total of $15/oz of gold produced. Of that $15/oz, $7/oz goes directly towards fighting criminal miners. "Interpol is involved, because the money leaves South Africa and it's funding international terrorism and it's also funding human trafficking."

"Organised crime and terrorism: Observations from Southern Africa", Institute for Security Studies, March, 2005.