Gold changes everything

"When we discovered gold in 2007-2008, the village completely changed" says Doussa, the coordinator of the artisanal gold mine in Bantako. "In 2007, we were 2,000 people, now more than 6,000 people live here." Around 3,000 miners work every day in the artisanal mine of Bantako, where they usually only find stones with small quantities of gold.

The workers in the makeshift tunnels are unofficially supervised by the village elders. They make sure that the miners carry a card issued by the Ministry of Mines in Dakar. "As you see, the state is missing here, so we, the villagers control the gold-mine and organize the work," says Doussa, adding: "You cannot work here if you haven’t talked to us before."

"I'm here just to work" says Guinean miner Mamadou. "There was no work in my village.There were no jobs. Here, I’m saving enough money to send home. That's all I care about." Working conditions are hard. Health and safety regulations and workers' rights are non-existent. "We are the black side of a very profitable market," explains Akia, head of the working team to which Mamadou belongs.

Before the gold-mines arrived, there were no motorcycles in the village. Suddenly the gold business and the many miners needed a fast way to connect to the most important town of the region, Kedougou, 35 km (22 miles) away from Bantako. Petrol sellers, mechanics and other activities followed, benefitting the community, and changing lives fundamentally.

Along the main road of Bantako, hundreds of little shops in corrugated metal huts sell everything a miner needs for work. "I came here just to open this business," says shop-owner Malik, who hails from another region in Senegal. Only a few years ago, no such businesses could be found in the remote villages of the Senegalese Savannah.

"Before the discovery of gold there were hardly any concrete houses," says 45-year-old Waly Keita, who became a miner when gold was found. "Even my house, which is now made of bricks and cement, would have never been built if I was still a farmer. So I do think that the village has gained from this business."

Miners who cannot afford expensive but efficient industrial machines which mechanically separates the gold from the stones, use a rudimentary gold-extraction method. The stones are smashed through old machines, wet, and laid out to dry more than once: "The second stage of smashing makes the stone smoother and increases the probability of finding gold," explains Lia while he works.

After being smashed for the second time, the stones are filtered through a sieve to make sure every last bit of gold is found. The whole family helps with this part of the work, especially in summer, when schools are closed.

The economic boom in the village and the arrival of thousands of workers also brought problems. For instance, there is no waste disposal system. But many people produce a lot of waste which they often throw into the stream that flows near the village. "One day the gold will finish. What will happen to the village then, I wonder?" says Keita.