Democratic Republic of Congo is looking for new buyers of gold from its eastern territories after taking full control of Primera Gold which had an exclusive contract to buy and sell gold mined in the east, the company's head said.

UAE-based Primera Group recently sold its stake in Congo-based Primera Gold, which had been a joint venture with the government, ending a controversial arrangement where it had been granted sole rights to trade gold dug by small producers or so-called artisanal miners in eastern Congo.

Primera Gold, now wholly owned by the government, is keen to invite other investors to buy the gold, its director-general, Joseph Kazibaziba, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We are very open to new buyers, we have been criticised for being exclusive," he said. "We are even interested in finding buyers in Europe."

Congo's deal with Primera, signed in 2022, was touted as a way to clean up the country's artisanal mining sector, where smuggling has led to the loss of millions of dollars in tax revenue each year and helped fund armed groups destabilising the mineral-rich east.

The contract gave Primera Gold a majority share in two joint ventures with exclusive rights to export artisanally-mined gold at a preferential rate of 0.25%.

Watchdog 'Le Congo n’est pas a vendre' (Congo is not for sale), a group of 14 Congolese and international organisations that push for transparency in the mining and financial sectors, has said the government needs to provide clarity on why Primera stepped away from the contract and called for an investigation.

Primera Group's corporate license in UAE expired in March, according to government records.

Primera Group did not respond to a request for comment. A Congo government spokesperson also did not respond to a request for comment.

Primera Gold has recently faced challenges buying gold in eastern Congo due to illicit traders who smuggle the mineral to Burundi, Uganda and Rwanda and are willing to pay more, according to a UN Security Council Report released in June.

The report said that Primera Gold's exports had declined to 164 kilograms of gold a month in March 2024 from a monthly average of 500 kilograms between May and October 2023.