Gold in Sudan: The Resource That Never Became Wealth — A Vast Asset with No Developmental Impact

Jan 19, 2026 | Mohannad Awad Mahmoud
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Since Sudan lost the bulk of its oil revenues following South Sudan’s secession in 2011, gold has become the country’s most important source of foreign currency and, in some years, the largest component of its export structure. Yet despite the scale of this shift, it has not translated into economic growth, monetary stability, or improved living standards. Instead, it has exposed a harsh paradox: a resource whose figures continue to swell while its developmental impact remains largely absent.

The problem does not lie in the existence of gold itself, but in how it is managed and in the institutional environment within which it operates. The overwhelming majority of Sudan’s gold production comes from unregulated artisanal mining—an activity that is widespread but weakly supervised, poorly organised, and prone to rapid leakage outside official channels. This structure undermines control over value chains and deprives the state of the ability to convert the resource into stable revenues that feed into the public budget or support the banking system.