The growing demand for gold and critical minerals are fuelling crimes, corruption, and instability in Africa, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has said.

This is contained in a report released by the UNODC on Tuesday in Vienna.

The report, ‘Minerals Crime: Illegal Gold Mining, part two of the Global Analysis on Crimes that Affect the Environment’, examined the motivations driving diverse actors to engage in mineral crime.

The report also examined the destinations of the unprocessed metals and minerals and the proceeds from their trade.

While the majority of gold mining sites are located in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia, the report found most gold refineries were concentrated in Europe, Asia and North America.

The study emphasised that organised crime groups and corporations as well as individual actors were involved in illegal gold mining and trafficking.

“In Africa”, the report found, “some organised crime groups operate exclusively in gold, while others use gold profits to fund armed activity, challenge state authority or fuel conflict”.

It stated that organised crime groups had increasingly embedded themselves in gold supply chains, attracted by the sector’s high profitability and the rising value of gold.

While revenues from gold were then reinvested into other criminal operations, local populations faced sexual exploitation, forced labour or displacement as a result, it stated.

It noted that legal mining operations were regulated to minimise environmental harm, but illegal mining bypassed these safeguards entirely.

The report emphasised that illegal mining was intensifying environmental damage, including through the use of banned or hazardous chemicals like mercury or deforestation to enable access to mineral deposits and illegal dumping of solid waste.

These practices, which bypassed environmental regulations, not only degraded ecosystems and accelerated biodiversity loss but also posed serious threats to public health, it said.

The report noted that the precious metal often crossed multiple borders before it reached a refining centre, creating opportunities for both criminal exploitation and law enforcement intervention.

“Criminal groups frequently introduce illegally sourced gold into the supply chain by exploiting weak oversight, inconsistent documentation and regulatory loopholes along trade routes.

“However, the geographical concentration of refineries offers a strategic point for disruption.

“Focusing regulatory efforts on these key hubs could significantly reduce the flow of illicit gold into the global market,” the UNODC report noted.