The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Thursday, June 25, that it had sanctioned Gasabo Gold Refinery and its owner, Jean Malic Kalima, for allegedly selling gold smuggled from neighboring DRC to fund the anti-government M23 rebel group.

Treasury officials said Gasabo Gold Refinery and Kalima served as key partners for Rwandan government figures and M23 insurgents, facilitating the extraction and transport of gold out of eastern DRC.

“The United States will not allow rogue groups to profit from illicit mineral trade…”

According to the Treasury, Rwandan soldiers and M23 fighters coordinated security for shipments of gold to the Congolese city of Bukavu, near the Rwandan border, and then onward to Gasabo’s headquarters in Kigali, the Rwandan capital.

“In early 2026, 60 kilograms of gold, worth millions of dollars, were moved from eastern DRC to Gasabo in this manner,” the Treasury statement said.

“The United States will not allow outlaw groups to profit from the illegal mineral trade to destabilize the region. The DRC’s mineral wealth rightfully belongs to the Congolese people,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in the release.

The sanctions freeze all assets held directly or indirectly by the targeted individuals and companies in the United States. They also bar U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with them, and extend to foreign firms with U.S. subsidiaries or those using the dollar in transactions.

M23 derives significant revenue from taxes on mineral production and trade

Since its resurgence in late 2021, the M23 (March 23 Movement) rebel group, backed by Kigali and the Rwandan army, has seized large territories in eastern DRC—a region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for three decades.

An investigation by the NGO Global Witness, released in early June, highlighted that hundreds of tons of coltan had been looted in eastern DRC by the rebels and laundered through Rwanda before being exported to smelters supplying electronics giants.

In April 2024, M23 captured the mining town of Rubaya, which accounts for 15% of global coltan production—a strategic mineral for the electronics industry. The group earns substantial income from a tax on mineral production and trade, and roughly 120 tons of coltan were exported monthly to Rwanda between May and October 2024, according to UN experts.