Origin bans on conflict gold fail even in such a scenario due to the same structural reason that a decade of comparable measures has already demonstrated: Provenance is not difficult to obscure. U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on conflict gold operate differently by targeting the specific people and firms that mine and move it rather than the commodity itself. involvement in Africa’s gold trade and the country in general reaps a two-fold reward of alliances and treasure. It would seem that the obvious target for sanctions on Sudanese conflict gold would be the Emirati-based system that absorbs it and makes it sellable on the international market. The smuggling of Sudanese conflict gold continues to thrive in that nebulous space between.