黄金的真实成本

2020 年，马里生产了超过 71 吨黄金，价值数十亿美元。但马里从那块黄金中只看到了 8.5 亿美元。而且这种情况并不是唯一的：非洲其他一些黄金丰富的国家没有看到他们应该给予黄金价格的收入。发生什么了？Lyla Latif 深入研究外国公司如何利用非洲国家的资源。

[由 Jeffig Le Bars 执导，

Jet Propulsion，Karen Marie 旁白，André Aires 配乐]。

Gold is one of Earth’s most valuable resources, with one kilogram regularly valued at over 55,000 US dollars. In 2020, Mali produced an estimated 71.2 tons of gold. But Mali only saw $850 million from gold in 2020, when that amount is worth billions, not to mention that the country likely produced much more than the reported 71.2 tons. The situation isn’t unique: a number of other gold-rich countries in Africa, including Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Niger also aren’t seeing the income they should, given the price of gold. The force behind this is greed on an individual, corporate, and national scale, and a corrupt system that perpetuates itself.

黄金是地球上最宝贵的资源 之一，每公斤黄金通常价值超过 55,000 美元。 2020 年，马里估计生产了 71.2 吨黄金。 但马里在 2020 年仅从黄金中获得了 8.5 亿美元， 当时这个数字价值数十亿美元， 更不用说该国的产量可能远远 超过报告的 71.2 吨。 这种情况并非独一无二：考虑到价格 ，非洲其他一些黄金丰富的国家， 包括毛里塔尼亚、塞内加尔、几内亚、科特迪瓦、 加纳、布基纳法索和尼日尔， 也没有看到应有的收入金子的。 这背后的力量是 个人、企业和国家层面的贪婪， 以及一个持续存在的腐败系统。

Although Mali has abundant gold, the country lacks the infrastructure to mine and export it. So the government allows multinational corporations to apply for licenses to mine gold in exchange for taxes paid to Mali’s government. These taxes should, theoretically, finance development, like building the infrastructure to mine gold, improve the economy, and provide citizens with public goods like healthcare and education. Tax money alone isn’t enough to do these things, of course: a government also has to be invested in its people’s well-being,and government corruption can prevent progress. But without adequate funds, even the best intentioned government doesn’t stand a chance of improving circumstances for its citizens.

尽管马里拥有丰富的黄金， 但该国缺乏开采和出口黄金的基础设施。 因此，政府允许跨国公司申请 开采黄金的许可证，以换取向马里政府缴纳的税款。 从理论上讲，这些税收应该为发展提供资金，例如建设基础设施以开采黄金、改善经济 并为公民提供医疗保健和教育等公共产品。 当然，仅靠税收是不够的： 政府还必须投资于人民的福祉， 政府的腐败会阻碍进步。 但如果没有足够的资金， 即使是善意的政府也没有机会 改善其公民的环境。

Foreign corporations exploit Mali’s need for tax revenue to get the government to sign on to very unfavorable yet perfectly legal contracts. For example, one such contract stated that no corporate taxes would be owed for the first five years, costing Mali millions in tax revenue. Meanwhile, mining licenses sometimes allow these corporations to take samples of gold out of the country without registering them or paying taxes on them.These should be small amounts of gold used to test for quality,but the license doesn’t limit the size of samples, so this creates a loophole where corporations export large amounts of gold without paying any tax.

外国公司利用马里对税收的需求， 让政府签署非常不利但完全合法的合同。 例如，一份这样的合同规定， 头五年不拖欠公司税，这使马里损失了数百万的税收。 同时，采矿许可证有时允许这些公司在没有登记 或纳税的情况下将黄金样品带出国外。 这些应该是用于测试质量的少量黄金，但许可证并没有限制样本的大小，因此这造成了公司出口大量黄金而无需缴纳任何税款的漏洞。

The multinational corporations are also evading taxes they are legally required to pay. They filter profits through a labyrinth of tax havens that’s difficult to trace. Or they exaggerate their expenses so they end up owing very little in taxes. For instance, a corporation in Mali uses a subsidiary in Ireland to manage its operations and another subsidiary in the Netherlands to license its brand name. The corporation in Mali pays management fees to the Irish subsidiary and pays intellectual property license fees to the Dutch company, all for enormous sums. These costs are deducted from overall profits, leaving the amount subject to taxes at a bare minimum.

跨国公司也在逃避 法律要求他们缴纳的税款。 他们通过难以追踪的迷宫般的避税天堂过滤利润。 或者他们夸大了他们的开支，所以他们最终欠的税很少。 例如，马里的一家公司使用爱尔兰的一家子公司 来管理其业务，并使用荷兰的另一家子公司 来授权其品牌名称。马里的公司向爱尔兰子公司支付管理费， 向荷兰公司支付知识产权许可费， 这些都是巨额费用。 这些成本会从整体利润中扣除， 从而将需要缴纳的税款降至最低。

These companies also buy gold on the black market. Local, small-scale miners often operate without a license, so the government is unaware of how much gold they mine.Corporations buy gold from these miners, avoiding the cost of mining the gold themselves, and pay the miners far below market value. Then they turn around and tell the government they incurred huge expenses mining gold they didn’t mine at all.There’s no way for Mali’s revenue authority to verify this information, causing the country to lose even more tax money.

这些公司也在黑市上购买黄金。 当地的小规模矿工经常无照经营，因此政府不知道他们开采了多少黄金。 公司从这些矿工那里购买黄金， 避免了自己开采黄金的成本， 并且支付给矿工远低于市场价值的费用。 然后他们转身告诉政府 ，他们在开采黄金时付出了巨额费用，而他们根本没有开采。 马里的税收当局无法核实这些信息， 导致该国损失更多的税款。

Similarly, corporations pay corrupt government officials to help them smuggle gold across borders, primarily to the United Arab Emirates, rather than operating through legal channels. In 2016, Mali reported around $200 million of exported gold, but the UAE reported receiving slightly over $1.5 billion of imported gold from Mali that same year. The gold is then sold to European, American, and Asian markets from the UAE, with no questions asked about its origins. Similar patterns can be seen with gold-rich countries across Africa, indicating that gold smuggling is happening on a massive scale, without ever being subject to taxes.

同样，公司付钱给腐败的政府官员 ，帮助他们跨境走私黄金，主要运往阿拉伯联合酋长国， 而不是通过合法渠道经营。 2016 年，马里报告的黄金出口额约为 2 亿美元，但阿联酋报告称 ，同年从马里进口的黄金略高于 15 亿美元。 然后黄金从阿联酋出售到欧洲、美国和亚洲市场，没有人询问其来源。非洲黄金丰富的国家也可以看到类似的模式，这表明黄金走私正在大规模发生，而且从未被征税。

All of this creates a vicious cycle, forcing a continued reliance on the corporations that helped create the situation in the first place.More than half of Mali’s citizens live below the international poverty line, while their nation’s wealth lines the pockets of foreign corporations and corrupt officials.

所有这些都造成了一个恶性循环， 迫使人们继续依赖 最初帮助创造这种情况的公司。 马里一半以上的公民生活在国际贫困线以下， 而他们国家的财富则落入了外国公司 和腐败官员的腰包。