Hitting the gold mine: Ottawa NGO imports first legal gold from the Congo

A little over a month ago, Joanne Lebert boarded a plane to make the long flight from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Toronto. She was helping transport a tiny package that could change the way gold from the Congo is traded internationally.

Lebert, executive director of Partnership Africa Canada, was carrying 238 grams of raw gold purchased from mines near the remote town of Mambasa. According to PAC, Lebert's import was one of the first legal gold purchases from the African nation. 

Partnership Africa Canada is an Ottawa-based NGO that is spearheading efforts to ethically import gold from the Congo to Canada. They sent their first shipment to a jewelry store in Toronto that makes fair trade pieces. 

An estimated $28 billion in unrefined gold lies deep beneath the soil in the eastern regions of the Congo, but 98 per cent of it leaves the country illegally, according to the International Peace Information Service.

"Gold in the Congo is an extremely informal sector," said Guillaume de Brier, a researcher at IPIS. "A miner will find gold [and] as his wealth is very remote in the forest, he will sell it to a top seller."

'You just need your courage and your tools'

In the province of Ituri, where Mambasa is located, the gold industry is mostly run by armed groups who patrol the mines. 

More than half of Mambasa's small population work in the 60 mines surrounding the town and most of the sites were run by armed fighters, according to the International Peace Information Service. 

"People have no lands, they usually have no education," said de Brier. "So if you want to be a miner, you just need your courage and your tools."

The turbulent situation in the Congo mining communities is why Partnership Africa Canada had to place a representative on the ground to supervise the export, said Joanne Lebert. 

In order to fairly export the gold, Lebert said that the organization had to have a fully documented history of each shipment, meaning it has to be sourced directly from local miners. It takes weeks to gather the necessary paperwork, but Lebert said over 700 miners in the area have already accepted PAC's proposal. 

Though the miners make less profit with PAC than they would on the black market, they know the process the gold undergoes is legal, she added. 

"They know the prices they receive includes the cost of transportation, the cost of the exporter, and so on."

Mined by hand

One gram of gold sells for about $50 CAD, making it an attractive mineral for artisanal miners, who make up about 80 per cent of miners in the Congo. Artisanal mining, including gold mining, is done by digging, washing and sorting the minerals by hand. 

Many artisanal mine workers in eastern the Congo are children, according to World Vision.

Working to prove that imported gold from the central African nation wasn't illegally mined has presented complications for PAC. 

"If you want to certify your gold, you have to make sure you know from where it was extracted," said de Brier. He added that the 238 grams Lebert imported was "a small amount, but it's an amount that still counts."

Landing in Canada

When Lebert disembarked in Toronto, the co-founder of the store who bought the gold met her at the airport. 

After those 238 grams of gold arrived at the end of May, Robin Gambhir said Fair Trade Jewelry will be receiving bigger shipments from PAC every month going forward. 

"It was enough to make about 40 or 50 rings and we'll be doing another export shortly, and we plan on increasing the volume every month," he said. 

"Part of the challenge is figuring out how to safely export the gold from the [Congo] …There's a security risk in carrying these items."

Gambhir said he hopes as shipments increase dealing with Congolese customs officials will become easier and faster. 

PAC has plans to eventually distribute the gold globally to other fair trade stores.