In Sudan, Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group (now known as the Africa Corps) established an elaborate gold extraction network through Meroe Gold Limited – a company under Prigozhin's M Invest umbrella – that systematically circumvented normal mining regulations through a meticulously documented arrangement with Sudan's military intelligence apparatus. Leaked internal contracts revealed that M Invest paid Aswar Multi Activities Co. (operated by Sudanese military intelligence) US$100,000 monthly plus a US$200,000 upfront "goodwill fee" and US$500 per Russian personnel brought into Sudan, with Aswar providing weapons, equipment, and military transport in return. The partnership yielded extraordinary privileges – including permission for Meroe's aircraft to fly under military signal codes to avoid commercial tracking, access to military bases, and most critically, an unprecedented presidential directive in August 2018 ordering the Ministry of Minerals to waive the government's mandatory 30% stake in gold operations specifically for Meroe. This arrangement continued even after President Bashir's 2019 ouster, with documents showing Sudan Mineral Trading (SMT) – a company owned by the Sudanese military – acting as an intermediary to transfer additional gold rights to Wagner's operations while legal experts within Sudan's own Ministry of Minerals raised objections that were subsequently overridden. When US sanctions targeted Meroe Gold in July 2020, the operation simply transferred its mining waste treatment facility to Al Sawlaj for Mining Ltd., a shell company with a single employee (a former Meroe manager) that government sources confirmed was merely a new front for Wagner's continued extraction of Sudanese gold to finance Russian war efforts.