Miners in Mauritania Search for Gold Using Traditional, Dangerous Methods
(AWP) - Around 250 kilometres from the capital Nouakchott and in the middle of the Mauritanian desert with its scorching heat and thick dust, hundreds of workers gather around hand-dug pits with ropes and rickety plastic containers while scooping up dust that is repeatedly refined until the tiny grains of gold shine through.
Many people in northern Mauritania work in gold mining using a traditional technique called "native mining", which poses significant threats to miners, including landslides that occur from time to time in deep pits.
"The result is good, God willing, but safety in terms of drilling has many shortcomings. We would like to find the methods that help us,” said Hammoudi Ould Zeid, who works in gold mining in the Chami area in northwestern Mauritania.
Miners use primitive tools while digging in search of gold-saturated soil, with little or no safety standards in pits, some of which are more than 10 metres deep.
Many miners suffer from the lack of clean drinking water in the middle of the harsh desert, in addition to inadequate health services and malnutrition due to food shortages.
Native mining is on the rise in northern Mauritania, as it is considered one of the most attractive economic activities for desert inhabitants.
In 2022, the Mauritanian metal company (Maaden Mauritanie) announced that the annual gold production from the private mining sector in the country amounts to 40 tonnes.