Dear ,

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

March 4 was the original presidential inauguration day in the constitution before it was changed to January 20 by the 20th Amendment. Since Sovereign Citizens don’t acknowledge any change tor the constitution after the 14th Amendment, by this logic Trump will re-assume the “real” presidency on the date laid down by the Founders.

In God we trust, for good reason.

Definition of sovereign

• 1a : one possessing or held to possess supreme political power or sovereignty
• b : one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere
• c : an acknowledged leader : arbiter

The sovereign citizen movement is a loose grouping of primarily American litigants, commentators, tax protesters, and financial-scheme promoters. Self-described "sovereign citizens" see themselves as answerable only to their particular interpretations of the common law and as not subject to any government statutes or proceedings.

In the United States, they do not recognize U.S. currency and maintain that they are "free of any legal constraints". They especially reject most forms of taxation as illegitimate. Participants in the movement argue this concept in opposition to the idea of "federal citizens", who, they say, have unknowingly forfeited their rights by accepting some aspect of federal law. The doctrines of the movement resemble those of the freemen on the land movement more commonly found in the Commonwealth, such as Australia and Canada.

Many members of the sovereign citizen movement believe that the United States government is illegitimate. The sovereign-citizen movement has been described as consisting of individuals who believe that the county sheriff is the most powerful law-enforcement officer in the country, with authority superior to that of any federal agent, elected official, or local law-enforcement official. The movement can be traced back to white-extremist groups like Posse Comitatus and the constitutional militia movement. It also includes members of certain self-declared "Moorish" sects.

Source: Sovereign Citizen Movement

When American colonists declared independence from England in 1776, they also freed themselves from control by English corporations that extracted their wealth and dominated trade. After fighting a revolution to end this exploitation, our country’s founders retained a healthy fear of corporate power and wisely limited corporations exclusively to a business role. Corporations were forbidden from attempting to influence elections, public policy, and other realms of civic society.

Initially, the privilege of incorporation was granted selectively to enable activities that benefited the public, such as construction of roads or canals. Enabling shareholders to profit was seen as a means to that end. The states also imposed conditions (some of which remain on the books, though unused) like these*:

• Corporate charters (licenses to exist) were granted for a limited time and could be revoked promptly for violating laws.
• Corporations could engage only in activities necessary to fulfill their chartered purpose.
• Corporations could not own stock in other corporations nor own any property that was not essential to fulfilling their chartered purpose.
• Corporations were often terminated if they exceeded their authority or caused public harm.
• Owners and managers were responsible for criminal acts committed on the job.
• Corporations could not make any political or charitable contributions nor spend money to influence law-making.

For 100 years after the American Revolution, legislators maintained tight control of the corporate chartering process. Because of widespread public opposition, early legislators granted very few corporate charters, and only after debate. Citizens governed corporations by detailing operating conditions not just in charters but also in state constitutions and state laws. Incorporated businesses were prohibited from taking any action that legislators did not specifically allow.

States also limited corporate charters to a set number of years. Unless a legislature renewed an expiring charter, the corporation was dissolved and its assets were divided among shareholders. Citizen authority clauses limited capitalization, debts, land holdings, and sometimes, even profits. They required a company’s accounting books to be turned over to a legislature upon request. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were outlawed. Shareholders had the right to remove directors at will.

In Europe, charters protected directors and stockholders from liability for debts and harms caused by their corporations. American legislators explicitly rejected this corporate shield. The penalty for abuse or misuse of the charter was not a plea bargain and a fine, but dissolution of the corporation.

In 1819 the U.S. Supreme Court tried to strip states of this sovereign right by overruling a lower court’s decision that allowed New Hampshire to revoke a charter granted to Dartmouth College by King George III. The Court claimed that since the charter contained no revocation clause, it could not be withdrawn. The Supreme Court’s attack on state sovereignty outraged citizens. Laws were written or re-written and new state constitutional amendments passed to circumvent the (Dartmouth College v Woodward) ruling. Over several decades starting in 1844, nineteen states amended their constitutions to make corporate charters subject to alteration or revocation by their legislatures. As late as 1855, it seemed that the Supreme Court had gotten the peoples’ message when in Dodge v. Woolsey it reaffirmed states’ powers over “artificial bodies.”

But the men running corporations pressed on. Contests over charter were battles to control labor, resources, community rights, and political sovereignty. More and more frequently, corporations were abusing their charters to become conglomerates and trusts. They converted the nation’s resources and treasures into private fortunes, creating factory systems and company towns. Political power began flowing to absentee owners, rather than community-rooted enterprises.

The industrial age forced a nation of farmers to become wage earners, and they became fearful of unemployment–a new fear that corporations quickly learned to exploit. Company towns arose. and blacklists of labor organizers and workers who spoke up for their rights became common. When workers began to organize, industrialists and bankers hired private armies to keep them in line — sometimes by killing key leaders. They bought newspapers to paint businessmen as heroes and shape public opinion. Corporations bought state legislators, then announced legislators were corrupt and said scrutinizing every corporate operation wasted public resources

Government spending during the Civil War brought these corporations fantastic wealth. Corporate executives paid “borers” to infest Congress and state capitals, bribing elected and appointed officials alike. They pried loose an avalanche of government financial largesse. During this time, legislators were persuaded to give corporations limited liability, decreased citizen authority over them, and extended durations of charters.

Attempts were made to keep strong charter laws in place, but with the courts applying legal doctrines that made protection of corporations and corporate property the center of constitutional law, citizen sovereignty was undermined. As corporations grew stronger, government and the courts became easier prey. They freely reinterpreted the U.S. Constitution and transformed common law doctrines.

One of the most severe blows to citizen authority arose out of the 1886 Supreme Court case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Though the court did not make a ruling on the question of “corporate personhood,” thanks to misleading notes of a clerk, the decision subsequently was used as precedent to hold that a corporation was a “natural person.” (This story was detailed in “The Theft of Human Rights,” a chapter in Thom Hartmann’s Unequal Protection.)

From that point on, the 14th Amendment, enacted to protect rights of freed slaves, was used routinely to grant corporations constitutional “personhood.” Justices have since struck down hundreds of local, state and federal laws enacted to protect people from corporate harm based on this illegitimate premise. Armed with these “rights,” corporations increased control over resources, jobs, commerce, politicians, judges, and the law.

A United States Congressional committee concluded in 1941, “The principal instrument of the concentration of economic power and wealth has been the corporate charter with unlimited power….”

Many U.S.-based corporations are now transnational, but the corrupted charter remains the legal basis for their existence. At Reclaim Democracy!, we believe citizens can reassert the convictions of those who struggled successfully to free us from corporate rule in the past. These changes must occur at the most fundamental level — the U.S. Constitution.

We are indebted to our friends at the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy for their research, some of which was adapted with permission for this article. Sources include:

• Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation by Richard L. Grossman and Frank T. Adams
• The Transformation of American Law, Volume I & Volume II by Morton J. Horwitz
• Personalizing the Impersonal: Corporations and the Bill of Rights, Carl J Mayer, Hastings Law Journal March, 1990

Source: Reclaim Democracy

In the underexplored and booming gold-mining areas of West Africa, Canadian miners are moving fast to expand their operations.

Mining firms large and small are exporting the expertise gained in their home market to Francophone West African countries where governments are keen to boost their revenue. Canada is home to gold giants like Barrick Gold, as well as minnows that are far from being household names.

“West Africa has more potential than any other region in the world. Its geology is similar to that of northern Ontario, Quebec or Western Australia – exceptionally prolific belts,” says Richard Young, head of the Canadian mining group Teranga Gold Corporation, which is active in Senegal and Burkina Faso.

The region is the third-richest gold-bearing zone in the world, after Australia and Canada. The Covid-19 pandemic has helped boost the gold price, as many investors sought safe havens for their money. The price briefly broke the $2,000/oz barrier in August 2020, before returning to the high $1,800s in November.

Three countries in the region are now among the top five African gold producers, starting with Ghana, which has become the continent’s largest producer with 142tn mined in 2019. This puts it ahead of South Africa (118tn), Sudan (76tn), Mali (61tn, with 15 industrial mines in operation) and Burkina Faso (51tn, 14 mines).

Who is interested?

Although, according to experts, the region is still largely underexplored, it is nevertheless attracting a growing number of players, such as global mining giant Barrick Gold, which became the world leader in the sector after its merger with Randgold Resources in January 2019. The Canadian group has been established in Mali for some 15 years and is now present in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal.

Barrick’s compatriots IAMGOLD (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali) and Endeavour Mining are also expanding their West African operations. IAMGOLD has four producing gold mines and is also spending on exploration in order to add to its pipeline. It is working with small UK-based firm Oriole Resources on the Senala exploration joint venture in Senegal.

IAMGOLD is also developing its Boto project in Senegal – part of what it considers to be several very prospective properties in the border region between Senegal, Mali and Guinea. It expects Boto to produce 160,000oz per year in its first years of operation.

In July 2020, Endeavour – managed by France’s Sébastien de Montessus – completed its merger with Canada-based Société d’Exploitation Minière en Afrique de l’Ouest (Semafo) for $755m. The company is present in Burkina Faso, Mali and Côte

d’Ivoire.

In Burkina Faso, the merged company will make the most of its synergies: by joining up operations at Endeavour’s Houndé mine and Semafo’s Mana and Bantou properties, all in the south-west, it can reduce its production costs. Endeavour is now Burkina Faso’s biggest gold miner in terms of volume.

Production boom

And the merger season was not over for Endeavour. On 16 November, the company, which counts Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris as a shareholder, announced a $1.86bn deal to buy its smaller rival Teranga, consolidating it as the biggest miner in West Africa and taking it into the top 10 worldwide.

The deal will add to Endeavour’s properties in Burkina Faso and also expand its operations into Senegal. Endeavour produced 651,000oz in 2019 and with Semafo and Teranga on board, it plans to produce about 1.5m ounces a year. Endeavour is spending big on exploration and says its target is to discover at least 10m ounces in the year ahead to add to the 23m measured and indicated ounces already in its portfolio.

Among the countries where the sector is developing strongly, Côte d’Ivoire saw its production increase from 7tn in 2009 to nearly 30tn in 2019. The country now has five industrial mines, operated by Barrick, Endeavour and Australia’s Perseus Mining.

In Senegal, the industrial mine operated by Sabodala Gold Operations, a local subsidiary of Teranga Gold, produced 241,276oz of gold in 2019, a record since it began production in 1998.

The new mining codes drawn up by various countries to attract and secure foreign investment have favoured the gold boom and the arrival of operators from all over the world. In West Africa, a mining permit can be obtained in one year, compared to at least five years in North America.

But there are challenges too. One of the main ones facing governments and professionals in the sector is the insecurity linked to jihadist attacks in the Sahel. On 6 November 2019, insurgents targeted a convoy carrying workers to Semafo’s Boungou mine in eastern Burkina Faso, killing 39 people and injuring some 60 others.

Transition in Mali

Most mining firms also remained bullish on Mali, despite the coup and fall of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in 2020. For example, B2Gold, which holds an 80% stake in the Fekola mine that produced 456,000oz of gold in 2019, said its work was largely unaffected, as were its plans to continue investing.

However, the national transitional authority says that it is reviewing mining conventions with the target of renegotiating any deals seen as unfavourable to the state. B2Gold also recently told the media that it is in talks about investing in another difficult operating environment: Zimbabwe.

Other West African obstacles include the high cost and low availability of electricity, as well as the need to regulate the activity of artisanal miners and to control gold panning. These are big problems both for government revenue and for investments by private operators.

Some Canadian miners are seeking sustainable solutions to their power problems. In December 2019, B2Gold signed a solar power storage deal with Finland’s Wärtsilä for its Fekola mine in Mali. And Canada’s Robex Resources signed a solar power and storage deal with Britain’s Vivo Energy for its Nampala mine, also in Mali. Long-term solutions for artisanal mining and gold panning are likely to prove much more difficult to create.

This article is available as part of the print edition of The Africa Report magazine: ‘Africa in 2021 – Who will be the winners and losers of the post-Covid era?’

The word doré is French for "gilded" or "golden"

A doré bar is a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver. It is usually created at the site of a mine and then transported to a refinery for further purification, this is where the mint is made (so to speak).

The proportions of silver and gold can vary widely. Doré bars weigh as much as 25 kg. and the demand at the refinery has never been so high.

During the nineteenth-century gold rushes, gold nuggets and dust would be melted into crude gold bars mistakenly called "bullion" by miners. They were, more accurately, doré bars with higher contents of silver and other adulterants than mints of the world would accept. Mint and private assayers would then refine the doré bars to an acceptable purity, 999 fine, gold bullion, the silver and base metals removed.

By the time of the California gold rush, mints were moving away from the age-old process of cupellation to "part" bullion and moving toward the acid refining process developed by chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac for the French mint. By the time of the Klondike gold rush, mints were replacing Gay-Lussac's acid process and introducing electrolysis to refine doré bars into 999.9 purity gold bullion.

Contracts for 100kg of gold per month for one year are available.

For more information about Gold currently available contact within

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