Sudan Seeks New Investors as Gold Sector Faces Regulatory Overhaul
Kassala State has opened new gold-mining investment blocks as Sudan reviews licences, curbs informal extraction, and seeks higher officially recorded production.
Sudan’s eastern state of Kassala has announced new investment opportunities in gold-mining concessions as authorities attempt to tighten control over a sector long dominated by informal extraction and opaque commercial networks.
Kassala state’s Investment, Industry and Tourism Commissioner, Abdelmonem Yaqoub, met with domestic mining firms to outline entry requirements and encourage participation from operators with experience in Red Sea, Northern and River Nile states, according to the state news agency SUNA.
Yaqoub said the state is seeking companies with established technical capacity and a record of compliant operations, adding that the commissioner’s office, together with the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company, will initiate formal tendering procedures for the new blocks.
Representatives of participating firms expressed interest, requesting streamlined licensing and clearer administrative procedures to enable investment.
The move comes amid a broader federal push to restructure Sudan’s gold industry — the country’s largest source of foreign currency — and reduce market leakage.
Last month, Sudanese Mineral Resources Company director Mohamed Taher disclosed that only 13 companies are producing gold at commercial scale, despite over 100 licensed entities. He said the war has accelerated the entry of unregulated actors, resulting in environmental violations, unsafe processing sites and smuggling.
Taher noted that the government intends to impose stricter compliance requirements, enhance monitoring and revise partnership agreements in order to lift state revenue. He warned that some operators had used the cover of artisanal mining to conduct unrelated commercial activities, contributing to economic distortion and environmental degradation in several states.
Sudan aims to reach 80 tonnes of gold output by the end of the year, with projected revenues of US$3 billion, according to official figures cited by SUNA.
The country produced more than 64 tonnes in 2024, and over 37 tonnes in the first half of 2025, indicating rising formal production levels despite the conflict.
The London-based NGO Global Witness has previously documented smuggling routes and the influence of armed groups in the trade, while the UN Panel of Experts has reported that gold remains a major funding source for warring parties.
Sudan remains Africa’s third-largest gold producer, but formal export volumes are far below estimated output due to parallel-market sales. The Central Bank stopped purchasing gold in 2020, allowing private traders to dominate supply chains, a system that has come under renewed scrutiny since the outbreak of war in April 2023.
Kassala’s initiative is likely to test whether state-level investment promotion can succeed amid disrupted logistics, weakened governance and competition from informal mining hubs in other regions.
Authorities say tighter oversight is essential to ensure revenues flow to the Treasury rather than to armed groups or smuggling networks.
Reporting by Awad Mustafa