Tour de Senegal/Kedougou: Gold!

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Douda guided us to two village-owned and operated gold mines in the Kedougou area. In the first area (photos 1-5, 10), groups own specific tracts of land, and set about tunneling up to 30 meters through layers of sand to potential gold-bearing deposits. It looks to be very hazardous work, and accidents/collapses do happen, though apparently not often. Below ground, the sand is moist, so inhaling aerosols is not a problem, neither is upper respiratory disease. It is surely dirty work (photo 10), but they do find gold, sold directly to buyers from Mali and elsewhere. If anything, the miners need assistance in assuring a fair market price.

Douda explained that the abundance of motorcycles in Kedougou are attributable to the relatively wealthy village gold miners.

The second operation, in a different location, was abuzz with activity, the landscape potholed with shafts running both vertically into the ground, and horizontally, tracking the gold-bearing layers. A sudden burst of excitement revealed that gold ore had been discovered. There was a rush to the area. Empty rice sacks were quickly gathered, used to bag the ore for crushing and careful sluicing back at the village (photo 8).

We hung out with a group of girls, in their early teens, who were charged with crushing and sluicing samples on site, checking for the presence of gold (photos 6&7).

See media for video.