At least a quarter of the world’s total gold supply comes from artisanal, or small-scale, gold mining, mainly in developing countries such as Senegal. Many miners recover gold from gold-rich rocks and alluvial deposits by adding mercury to create an amalgam of gold and mercury. They then heat the amalgam with a flame to evaporate the mercury, leaving behind a porous “sponge” of gold. The miners and their families are exposed to some of the gaseous mercury as it burns off; the rest ends up in the surrounding environment as well as further downstream if a river is nearby. UNIDO projects are offering alternatives to this toxic and dangerous process. Mahamoudou Dramé is President of the Federation of Kedougou Gold Miners in Senegal. He talks about a UNIDO project that helped the country to reduce the use of mercury in gold mining.

– Next to the town of Kedougou, the village of Bantaco is home to a small-scale artisanal gold mining community. In our region, gold mining families, as well as people not involved in mining activities, are affected by the health impacts of the use of mercury. Men and women make and burn the gold-mercury amalgam with no safety precautions. Children are often nearby.

From 2012 to 2015, we were part of a UNIDO-supported pilot project to improve the health and environment of our community. Since many miners were unaware of the dangers associated with mercury use, we held awareness-raising sessions to encourage the gold miners of Kedougou to stop using mercury. More than 50 association members and presidents took part in the sessions and they shared the information with their colleagues.

UNIDO also installed new equipment that enables gold extraction without using mercury. The extracted rocks are first crushed in a jaw-crusher, then milled in a wet process to avoid dust generation before discharging on sluice boxes. The recovered minerals are then poured on a shaking table. Since gold is a heavy element, shaking naturally separates gold particles from lighter particles. Gold miners were trained to operate and maintain the equipment. This resulted in a higher gold recovery rate and the elimination of the use of mercury in gold mining activities in Bantaco.

Some challenges remain: there is for the time being a lack of data about the quantity of gold that can be extracted through the new equipment; therefore, we are not able to quantify the benefits of the equipment yet. On the other hand, we have no information on the potential quantity of gold that can be extracted from the site. Hence, we would like to see the integration of a weighing device in the existing equipment, as well as a wide dissemination of the equipment across the Kedougou region, as well as in Senegal and West Africa in general. We also have to continue our efforts to formalize our operations and that includes working on health, safety and gender.

We are happy. As a result of this project, many miners have eliminated the use of mercury in their activities. Therefore, people of our community are now less exposed to mercury.