The River Niger is the third largest river in Africa after the Nile and the Congo. With a length of 4,200 km, 1,700 of which are in Mali, the river has seen an increase in gold panning in recent years. Known popularly as dredging, this practice is prohibited by the old Mining Code of 2019 and the new Mining Code promulgated by the President of the Transition on 28 August 2023. Gold panning by dredging in the River Niger upstream of Bamako has raised fears of a serious risk to the aquatic environment. Is this risk real?
In their frantic pursuit of gold, gold panners have descended into Mali’s rivers. Even the River Niger has not been spared. This type of gold panning is known as dredging. Djibril Diallo is an expert, geological engineer, miner and teacher. He begins by explaining the concept of dredging. “In the literal sense, dredging is a way of removing sand from a river or the sea. Over time, dredging has found its way into gold mining. This is done in Canada and the United States. When they tried to dredge the river, the sand or gravel that came out of the water contained gold. So they set up a system that not only removes the sand and gravel from the river, but also treats it to recover the gold”.
Mention of the word dredging in Mali automatically conjures up images of gold, even though sand miners also dredge.
What does dredging involve?
“Dredging in Mali is carried out using small boats called suction dredgers, made locally. These boats are fitted with Mercedes 190 engines, a pump and a hose long enough to reach the bottom of the river. A diver attaches the hose to the bottom of the river to suck up the gravel or sand. The sucked-up material is deposited on the surface and forms a super concentrate. The gold miners pour a small quantity of mercury onto this concentrate, which captures the gold. The mercury is then burnt. When it evaporates, the gold is recovered”, explains the expert. This treatment is performed out of the water. According to geological engineer Djibril Diallo, gold panning by dredging employs more than 500,000 Malians.
According to testimonies gathered from gold miners in Samanyana near Bamako, some of them come from distant localities to work on the dredge. “With the security crisis in the north and centre of the country, many young people have ended up dredging. They have found a way to support themselves and their families. With the ban in 2019, what are these 500,000 young people going to do if not join the ranks of bandits and jihadists? This will create problems of insecurity and billions will be needed to solve this problem. Before we get to that stage, we need to know how to manage the sector,” stresses Djibril Diallo.
Dangerous activity
The River Niger is one of the five most polluted rivers in the world, according to studies published in 2017 by the journal “Environnemental Science & Technology”. In Mali, a report published on the state of the River Niger in December 2018 by the River Niger Basin Agency indicates that sources of pollution are present along the entire course of the river from Djoulafondio, as soon as it enters Mali, to Labbézanga (on the border with Niger). One of the reasons for this pollution is gold panning by dredging, according to Fatim Hélène Traoré, environmentalist, ambassador for water and sanitation, and campaigner for access to water, sanitation and the preservation of biodiversity.
“Traditional gold panning is a widespread activity in Mali, involving the use of uncontrolled quantities of toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide, hydrocarbons and the use of large dredging machines and equipment. The harmful effects and impacts on the environment are manifold: degradation of the landscape, deterioration of aquatic fauna and flora, water pollution, soil degradation, which unbalances the very ecosystem of the River Niger (disappearance of fish species, development of toxic plants, degradation of the river bed and banks, etc.)”, warns the environmentalist. She also points out that dredging complicates water treatment insofar as it contributes to the pollution of the River Niger.
She also maintains that dredging can have an impact on people living along the river, who use the water for drinking and eating, as well as for cooking and washing clothes. The toxic particles in the raw water find their way into the human organism, and when they accumulate, they represent a danger to people’s health,” explains the environmentalist. From a social and economic point of view, fishing communities depend on fishery resources, the quantity and quality of which have been gradually reduced over the last twenty years as a result of human and industrial pollution, she adds.
Dr Sidy Ba is an environmental engineer, lecturer at the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs Abderhamane Baba Touré (ENI-ABT) in Bamako and president of the National Coalition to Save the River Niger (Coalition nationale pour la Sauvegarde du fleuve Niger – CNSFN). He agrees with Fatim Hélène Traoré. “The consequences of dredging rivers for gold mining are numerous. They include the destruction of riverbeds and the habitat of aquatic species such as fish; increased turbidity of the water with the suspension of sediments; pollution with the dumping of chemicals (mercury, acid, etc.), oil and grease; noise pollution; etc. This phenomenon leads to physical and biological degradation of watercourses”, says the lecturer.
In his view, the destruction of species’ habitats contributes to their migration, reduces their reproductive capacity and thus reduces certain ecosystem services such as fishing. Dredging is also an environmental scourge in that it alters the configuration of a river’s course in some cases, as well as degrading water quality,” he continues.
The words of Mahamane Touré, a fisherman on the Niger upstream of Bamako since 1981, confirm what was said before: “Our troubles began around 2003 when dredging started. Dredging has had a real impact on fishing. The water in the river is no longer fit to drink. During the period of high water and the period of low water, we’re doing much better. We can fish for threadfin from 10 to 100 kg. But during the dry season, fish become very, very scarce. During this period, we extract the shells and sell them to poultry farmers. But we take out a fishing permit every year”.
Action to combat
There has been no shortage of action against dredging. Around 2014, environmentalists and river protection organisations began to speak out against dredging in the bed of the River Niger. Dr Ba’s National Coalition to Save the River Niger (Coalition nationale pour la Sauvegarde du fleuve Niger – CNSFN) is one of these organisations.
“We carried out public awareness campaigns and lobbied the ministry responsible for the environment. Some of our members have even helped some dredge owners to switch from dredging for gold to mining for sand and gravel”, recalls the environmental engineer.
Djibril Diallo questions the idea that dredging has a negative impact on the river. In his view, environmentalists have fed gold miners lies in order to ban their activity. The pollution of the river’s water should be looked for elsewhere, he says. Some gold miners in Burkina Faso use cyanide on the banks of rivers because they need water to process the ore. They make small ponds where they treat the ore with cyanide.
During the rainy season, the water overflows these basins and flows into the river. The impact of their activity is not visible. It’s those who do the dredging who are systematically accused of pollution, defends the geological engineer. He recalls that in 2015, a large quantity of fish was found dead without explanation following a torrential downpour.
An investigation was launched by the Department of the Environment to establish the causes, but the results were not published. “I think the investigation was very badly conducted. They suspended the dredging, thinking that this was the cause of the mass death of the fish. Otherwise, the stories about the chemicals are false,” he maintains.
The geological engineer believes that suspending operations is a bad thing. Instead, he advocates better organisation. “If there are a lot of dredgers in one place, they disturb the water and make it difficult for aquatic fauna to live. However, if the sector is well organised and a dredger works within a perimeter of 1 km2, this will have no impact on the turbidity of the water. As far as I’m concerned, the problem is organisational”, says the engineer.
He is calling on the government to reverse its decision to ban dredging, and to ensure that it is properly organised: “Despite the ban, dredging is continuing clandestinely in some areas. And this has more serious consequences than if it were authorised. The state pays money to the law enforcement agencies to crack down on the activity. But some people take money from gold panners and turn a blind eye. In that case, the ban will have served no purpose other than to exacerbate the problem”, said Mr Diallo.
Business continues despite the ban
According to Youssouf Guindo, dredging continues despite the ban: “A few years ago, the authorities informed us that gold panning was banned in the river on the grounds that this activity fills in the riverbed and destroys aquatic fauna through the use of chemicals. At the time, we all stopped dredging, even though the reasons given were false. But we noticed that the bucket machines (the popular name given to a boat used for dredging – editor’s note) used by foreigners were still working. So, we also lowered our dredgers into the water, because you can’t ban us from doing something and allow foreigners to do it”.
Many Malians make a living from dredging with great difficulty, continues Youssouf Guindo. “The amount of gold extracted has dropped considerably. What’s more, we’re having another problem with the authorities. In the days of Mali’s President Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT), every year, every dredge operator took out a 100,000 FCFA card (operating permit from the National Geology and Mines Directorate, editor’s note) for the whole year. Under Ibrahim Boubacar Kéita, everything changed before the ban. Payment became monthly. From 100,000 a year, agents from the Brigade fluviale require us to pay 30,000 FCFA a month per dredger, without receipt. Between the 1st and 10th of the month, the River Brigade officers come by to collect this amount from each dredger. Anyone who doesn’t comply has their installations dismantled until the money is paid. This practice continues after the ban”, says the gold digger. This information was denied by the commander of the River Brigade. In his view, the dredgers are simply trying to legitimise their practice.
And what if supervision and organisation of the activity were the solution, as Djibril Diallo recommends? Before dredging was banned, Mali was Africa’s leading gold producer. After dredging was banned, Mali suddenly found itself in 4th place behind Sudan, where gold panning is well developed. Unfortunately, our government has not managed to organise the sector, which remains informal. The government could have found solutions through the Chamber of Mines to provide a better framework for the sector and make it more professional, as is the case in Ghana, where gold miners have a diploma and are considered to be skilled workers. If the government managed to do that, it would be propelled to the top,” advises the geological engineer. Environmentalists, however, disagree.
“Mali cannot combat the devastating effects of climate change without an integrated strategy to preserve biodiversity (water, land and forests). The River Niger is a source of economic opportunities and will contribute to sustainable growth in Mali and all the neighbouring countries it flows through. Any form of pollution of the river is a public health and economic development issue”, says Fatim Hélène Traoré.
She added: “I am therefore calling for a strong political will on the part of the State of Mali to take the necessary measures to mitigate the effects of dredging on the River Niger and to take concrete action to ensure strict compliance with the regulations in force. I am also appealing to the public, who have a role to play in keeping a watchful eye and reporting cases of dredging on the River Niger”.
Investigation carried out by Yacouba TRAORE with the support of the Norbert Zongo Unit for Investigative Journalism in West Africa (CENOZO).
