Reuters offers insight on the race to clean up Africa’s gold rush

Reuters offered insight into the bid to clean up Africa’s gold rush. Across the region, small-scale gold mining is booming and new refineries are opening by the dozen to process metal produced by informal diggers in Africa and beyond. The refineries, which often win high-level political backing, can be positive because they offer miners and states a way to extract value from their own mineral wealth rather than just exporting raw commodities. But if not properly controlled, they risk adding to problems of smuggling and funding conflict.