The US Treasury Department announced sanctions June 27 against four companies, including two gold companies, and one person with ties to PMC Wagner.
The group, better known as the Wagner Group, is a Russia-based private military organization owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin that has been active in Crimea, Africa, the Middle East and most recently Ukraine. The Wagner Group, its members and other companies with ties to the organization have previously been sanctioned by countries including the US, the EU, Canada and the UK. The Treasury Department designated the Wagner Group as a "significant transnational criminal organization" in January.
The group derives some of the funding for its military operations in Ukraine from mining assets in Africa. It is working to expand some of those mining projects, particularly in the Central African Republic, to boost funding, Politico has reported.
Treasury's sanctions target Central African Republic-based gold companies Midas Ressources SARLU and Diamville SAU, as well as United Arab Emirates-based industrial goods company Industrial Resources General Trading, Russia-headquartered Limited Liability Company DM, and Wagner Group executive Andrey Nikolayevich Ivanov.
"Treasury's sanctions disrupt key actors in the Wagner Group's financial network and international structure," Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a June 27 press release. "The Wagner Group funds its brutal operations in part by exploiting natural resources in countries like the Central African Republic and Mali. The United States will continue to target the Wagner Group's revenue streams to degrade its expansion and violence in Africa, Ukraine, and anywhere else."
Midas Ressources has a "preferential mining allowance" to the Passendro gold mine in the Central African Republic, has prevented Central African Republic government officials from inspecting the mine and is "key to financing Wagner's operations in the [Central African Republic] and beyond," the Treasury said in the press release. The gold at the site is valued at more than $1 billion, according to experts cited by the Treasury.
Diamville is controlled by Prigozhin and was active in a 2022 gold-selling scheme aimed at converting gold to US dollars and transferring the funds by hand to avoid US sanctions on Russia's financial sector, the agency said in the same release. Industrial Resources General Trading and Limited Liability Company DM were also involved in the gold trading plan, according to the Treasury.
Ivanov was sanctioned for acting on Prigozhin's behalf on "weapons deals, mining concerns, and other Wagner Group activities in Mali," the Treasury said.
Several US agencies, including the Treasury Department, also issued an advisory June 27 on sub-Saharan Africa's gold sector focused on the region's gold trade risks.
S&P Global Commodity Insights produces content for distribution on S&P Capital IQ Pro.
