Lebanon is historically notorious for its lack of metals and similar natural resources. This makes it even more astonishing that almost one quarter of Lebanese exports are constituted by a precious metal: gold. In 2016, non-monetary gold accounted for 23 percent of total exports, which were worth a little over $700 million according to customs data. Most of this gold was exported to South Africa. Since mining of gold is non-existent in Lebanon, a second look at trade figures confirms that Beirut mostly acts as a transit point in the gold trade. It imports gold from Egypt, which is a smaller producer, from Switzerland, which is not on the list of the top 100 producing countries, and from several West African nations. Imports of non-monetary gold in 2016 reached nearly $1 billion, or about 5 percent of total imports. According to the United Nations trade classifications, gold is considered monetary
