Faded Dream

Alain Goetz: Rwanda sold vision of gold refinery and then strangled it

By Musinguzi Blanshe

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Posted on July 13, 2023 15:34

© President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, with Alain Goetz, is shown gold flakes at the African Gold Refinery (AGR ltd) in Entebbe on February 20, 2017. (Photo by GAEL GRILHOT / AFP)
President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, with Alain Goetz, is shown gold flakes at the African Gold Refinery (AGR ltd) in Entebbe on February 20, 2017. (Photo by GAEL GRILHOT / AFP)

Rwanda conjured up a dream of making the country a gold refining hub before slowly killing an agreed project, Belgian gold dealer Alain Goetz tells The Africa Report.

The Aldango gold refinery in the Kigali special economic zone was a 50-50 joint venture between Aldabra, a company owned by Goetz, and Rwandan government-owned Ngali Mining. Aldango started operating in June 2019. In January 2021, Rwandan officials suspended Aldango’s export licence, having already arrested several company employees.

Confiscation of the refinery, Goetz says, means a loss of about $20m. “We will pay for it for the next 20-25 years because it’s not our money,” he says. “We use peoples’ money who believe in us, who invest in us.”

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