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Artisanal gold pre-export financing gives a licensed African comptoir the cash to buy gold at the pit, export it legally and sell it to a UAE refiner, with the lender repaid from the refiner's settlement.
Artisanal and small-scale mining produces around one fifth of the world's mined gold and supports about 20 million people, according to the World Gold Council in August 2026. Most of it trades for cash, so whoever can pay on the spot controls the volume.
A comptoir that waits to be paid by the refiner before buying again turns its capital once a month at best. One with a revolving pre-export line buys every day, ships every week and holds its suppliers. Pre-finance is what lets a compliant exporter compete on speed with informal buyers.
The stakes are large. SWISSAID estimated in May 2024 that 321 to 474 tonnes of artisanal gold leave Africa undeclared each year, about 75% of the continent's artisanal output, and that the UAE received 47% of gold exported from African mines in 2022. Every formal, financed and traceable channel takes volume from that informal trade and pays royalties at source.
In most producer countries, artisanal gold can only be exported by a licensed buying house, usually called a comptoir in francophone Africa. The comptoir buys from registered collectors, melts the gold into doré, has it assayed, pays the mining royalty and export taxes, and obtains the export permit. It is the borrower in a pre-export facility because it holds the licence, the supplier relationships and the export documents.
Rules differ sharply by country and change often. In Ghana, the Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod) became the sole buyer, assayer and exporter of artisanal gold in 2025, working through licensed aggregators. GoldBod exported 104 tonnes in 2025, and from 1 September 2026 unrefined artisanal doré may no longer be exported, so aggregators must refine locally first, as MiningMX reported. In eastern DRC, a state and UAE-registered joint venture held exclusive buying rights in South Kivu and exported more than five tonnes in 2023, according to the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. A facility has to be built around the export route that is legal in that country on the day of shipment.
The mechanics mirror our wider pre-export finance work. For the Dubai leg specifically, see gold transaction financing to CIF Dubai and margin and collateral requirements for gold traders.
Offers of African doré at 10% to 20% below the LBMA price, delivered CIF Dubai, circulate widely. They do not perform, for a simple reason. Gold is fungible and priced twice a day by a transparent benchmark, and any accredited refiner with cash would buy every kilo offered at that discount. A genuine producer has no reason to give away a fifth of its value to an unknown intermediary.
The real gap between the pit price and the refiner's settlement pays for refining, assay losses, freight, insurance, royalties, financing and the exporter's margin. Lenders underwrite that spread, not a windfall. Read more in our analysis of the gold CIF Dubai myth.
A valid export licence, audited or reviewed accounts, a supplier register traceable to mine sites, KYC and KYCC on collectors, assay records, royalty receipts, an offtake contract with an accredited refiner and a supply-chain risk assessment aligned with the OECD guidance applied through the LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance. On the UAE side, refiners must apply the Ministry of Economy due diligence regulations in force since January 2023, including an independent third-party audit, so they will ask for the same file.
Share your licence, monthly volumes, offtake terms and compliance file. Financely is an advisor and arranger, not a lender or gold buyer, and we will set out the facility structure and the gold trade finance lenders that fit.
It is a cash advance to a licensed comptoir or exporter, repaid from the sale of the gold to a refiner under an offtake contract. The lender is secured on the offtake proceeds, the gold in transit and a controlled collection account.
The UAE has become one of the world's largest gold refining and trading hubs. SWISSAID's 2024 study found the UAE received 47% of gold exported from African mines in 2022.
Not on a sustained basis. Gold is fungible and priced off the LBMA benchmark, so the gap between pit price and refiner settlement reflects real costs such as refining, assay, freight, insurance, taxes and finance.
Supplier KYC and KYCC, site-level traceability, export licences, royalty receipts, assay reports and a supply-chain risk assessment aligned with the OECD guidance used by LBMA and UAE regulators.
Neither. Financely is an advisor and arranger. We structure the pre-export facility and introduce it to commodity funds, trade finance lenders and offtakers, who make their own decisions.
Statistics and regulatory references are taken from the linked publications and may change. This page is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax or investment advice. Financely is an advisory and arranging firm, not a lender, gold buyer or broker-dealer. Any financing is subject to the lender's underwriting, due diligence, credit approval, documentation and applicable export and AML rules.
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