Bamako, Mali – a gold mine It is the second great accident this year in the country of Western French -speaking Africa, which is one of the three gold producers in Africa.
Late on Saturday, Malian Television announced the collapse of the site in Bilali Koto in the commune of Dabia, with a provisional number of 42 and many injured.
The prefect of Kéniéba, which represents the government in the town, confirmed the incident. “The number of 42 of 42 should be definitive,” Mohamed Dicko told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“The accident occurred yesterday, Saturday. It was a landslide in a site led by Chinese nationals, ”said the leader of the Falaye Sissoko community. Dicko said the authorities were still trying to establish whether the mine was legally operating.
This is the second time in less than a month that such an accident has happened in Mali. On January 29, a landslide killed several gold miners, mostly women, in the Koulikoro region in the south of the country.
In January last year, an unregulated gold mine collapsed near the capital, Bamako, killing more than 70 people.
In recent years, there have been concerns that mining profits not regulated in northern Mali could benefit active extremists in that part of the country.
“Gold is, with much, the most important export of Mali, which includes more than 80% of total exports in 2021,” according to the International Commercial Administration of the United States Department of Commerce. He says that more than 2 million people, or more than 10% of the population of Mali, depend on the mining sector to obtain income.
It is estimated that artisanal gold mining produces around 30 tons of gold per year and represents 6% of the annual golden production of Mali.
