(Ecofin Agency) - DR Congo is considering taking back from Swiss gold refiner Argor-Heraeus SA, about 3 tons of gold mined from its subsoil, between 2004 and 2005, by an armed group in a gold concession close to the town of Mongbwalu in the Ituri district, Province Orientale.

“This issue of 3 tons of gold is a priority for the government which, through the ministries of Mines and Justice, is currently studying how to go about it in order for the case previously dismissed in Switzerland to be reopened, even here in the country…”, Martin Kabwelulu, Minister of Mines, declared. This, the daily Le Phare reports, on the sidelines of conference on illicit gold trading in DRC organised by Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), on 29 and 30 September at Fleuve Congo Hotel.

A commission has supposedly been working for over 6 months on this case and already had meetings with a Swiss prosecutor as well as leaders from the Swiss association Track Impunity Always (TRIAL).

TRIAL rang the alarm in 2013 and filed a complaint, on 31^st October 2013, against Argor-Heraeus SA for “serious laundering of stolen goods”, we learn.

Militiamen from the Front Nationaliste Intégriste (FNI – Nationalist Integrist Front) are accused of having stolen, between 2004 and 2005, this cargo of 3 tons of gold nuggets, valued at USD 40 million, which financial fallout were used to finance their military activities.