SignaFi secures $35m facility to buy gold from African, South American artisanal miners
SignaFi, which buys gold under multiyear contracts from organised artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) cooperatives and aggregators, has secured a $35-million credit facility from a consortium of British and United Arab Emirates (UAE) investors to finance gold supply.
The consortium is led by UAE-based Ronin Commercial Brokers and the facility is available for immediate drawdown, providing SigraFi with the capital to expand current operations with its contracted suppliers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zambia and South America, and to contract new cooperatives and aggregators.
“Artisanal miners produce one in every five ounces of new gold, yet most are shut out of the formal market, without the capital, compliance support or buyers that the rest of the industry takes for granted.
“That leaves the door open to illicit buyers and exploitative practices. This facility empowers cooperatives that have done the hard work of organising, and gives them a direct, traceable route to the world gold market. We have moved fast because the demand is there on both sides: cooperatives want a legitimate route to market and refiners want traceable supply,” comments SignaFi co-founder and chairperson Stefan Allesch-Taylor.
“Artisanal gold has long been seen as too opaque for serious capital. SigraFi has changed that equation. We see this as the start of a significant new channel for responsibly sourced gold, and we are pleased to back SigraFi as it scales,” adds Ronin principal Gerges Raphael.