SigraFi Ltd., the UK-headquartered gold offtake company that purchases gold under multi-year contracts from organised artisanal and small-scale gold mining (‘ASGM’) cooperatives and aggregators, has secured a US$35 million credit facility to finance gold supply. The facility is provided by a consortium of British and UAE investors led by UAE-based Ronin Commercial Brokers LLC and is available for immediate drawdown. It provides SigraFi with the capital to expand current operations with its contracted suppliers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (‘DRC’), Zambia and South America, and to contract new cooperatives and aggregators.
Founded in 2025, SigraFi has signed supply contracts in Africa and South America, including a long-term partnership with PeaceGold covering c.25,000 miners in the eastern DRC. SigraFi is chaired by City veteran Stefan Allesch-Taylor. Its advisory board includes Ibukun Adebayo, formerly Global Head of Sustainable Finance and Investment Strategy at London Stock Exchange Group, and John Howchin, a board member of the United Nations-convened Global Tailings Management Institute and former Secretary-General of the Council on Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds.
Stefan Allesch-Taylor, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of SigraFi, said: “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.”
Gerges Raphael, Principal of Ronin, said: “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.”
PeaceGold
The facility follows the long-term supply and capital partnership agreement that SigraFi signed with PeaceGold this year. PeaceGold works with 11 cooperatives representing c.25,000 miners in Ituri Province in the eastern DRC. Under the agreement, PeaceGold acts as an aggregator and export partner for its participating cooperatives, while SigraFi provides guaranteed offtake agreements at competitive pricing, giving cooperatives a greater share of the value of their gold.
The ‘Golden Gap’
Global mined gold production is likely to plateau over the next few years, according to the World Gold Council, while ASGM already accounts for at least 20% of newly mined gold. Its organised producers are held back by a lack of compliance capability and remain cut off from the capital, export corridors and offtakers that serve the rest of the industry. SigraFi was founded to help close this ‘Golden Gap’.
