In Mali, the use of cyanide, mercury and dredges for gold extraction, under the impotent or complicit gaze of the technical services responsible, is a headache for the people of Kéniéba and Sadiola. These prohibited products, like dredgers, expose human beings to death and contribute to the pollution of waterways and the destruction of the ecosystem. The Falémé, the most important river in the area, is currently in a very advanced state of cyanide pollution, with maximum levels estimated at 214%, or 209 times higher than the Malian standard, estimated at 5% by the National Water Laboratory in Bamako.
“It’s impossible to do gold panning today without cyanide. If you don’t use it, you’re going to throw away your ore along with the real gold. And some people will come and take your mud, which certainly contains gold nuggets, and earn more than you do”, says Mr Konaté, owner of a cyanide works 2 km from the town of Sadiola, on the road to Kéniéba (south-west Mali) in the village of Brokoné. It holds 24 tanks of cyanide and employs 3 people. Under a blazing sun, the 3 employees were drinking tea under a tree about 15 metres from the tanks.
It’s hard to put a figure on the number of ponds on the site, but according to Mr Koné: “There are around 150 site owners here. And some have more than 200 ponds on the site. This site covers an area of eight hectares. As you can see, it’s surrounded by an iron fence, parts of which are no longer holding. The GPS coordinates of the Brokoné site are V827+RPG Sadiola and R8X8+548 Sadiola. These two coordinates are taken from the same enclosure.
According to Konaté, all the cyanide used in this enclosure is bought from shops in the town of Sadiola: “The product is generally in 50kg bags and we bring them here by motorbike.” Cyanide is a heavy metal in the form of small white balls like sugar. It has no odour and dissolves very easily in water.
Cyanide is only used in construction sites. The ores extracted from the pits are processed in the workings. Once the ore has been extracted, the gold miners first send it to the mill, commonly known as a “cracheur”, to crush it. The softened ore is then washed on a ramp covered with pieces of rough carpet that retain the gold, along with a little mud in which mercury is added. This mixture is burnt with charcoal to release the mercury and obtain pure gold. This phase is called amalgamation.
After the mercury stage, the ore residue already washed on the conveyor belt, known as “reject”, is then sent to the workings to be treated with cyanide. These workings are often remote from the ore extraction sites and are fenced off. The first stage of these workings consists of digging rectangular basins measuring one metre by two metres or more. They are no more than a metre deep and are filled with slightly heavy plastic mats onto which already mined ore is poured.
In some areas of the Faléa commune, instead of using plastic mats, the gold miners cement the basin before pouring in the ore, onto which a quantity of water is poured. Cyanide, lime and sulphuric acid are then mixed with another water and poured into the basin. Next to the basin, they dug a hole in which there was a U-shaped tube containing zinc shavings.
Professor Adama TOLOFOUDJÉ is a specialist in Chemical and Process Engineering and a lecturer at the Faculty of Science and Technology in Bamako. He runs the Faculty’s laboratory and conducts studies on gold-panning sites. He gives these details in his Green Vista report published in March 2022: “The gold-enriched zinc is recovered from the basin and placed in aluminium containers. A sulphuric acid solution is poured over the enriched zinc. The sulphuric acid reacts with the zinc and the gold is released into a solution. The zinc recovered in this way is reused to capture the gold”.
Given its effectiveness in recovering gold, cyanidation is becoming increasingly popular with gold miners. Professor TOLOFOUDJÉ writes in his Green Vista that cyanidation is the process that yields the greatest quantity of gold: “It is a process that consists of separating the gold by immersing finely ground ore (sometimes from washing rejects, where 70% of the gold can be recovered) in an alkaline cyanide bath”, he points out.
In other words, according to him, you can only get 30% of the gold from the ore with the mercury. Someone who doesn’t use cyanide could throw away the tailings with a lot of gold, causing losses without realising it. This highly toxic chemical is prized by gold miners on gold sites. Yet the new Mining Code, which will be promulgated in September 2019, formally prohibits the use of cyanide on gold panning sites. Article 50 of this Code prescribes:
Unfortunately, this law does not provide for penalties against those who use these highly toxic chemicals. Although these products are harmful to health and contribute to the pollution of waterways and the degradation of our ecosystem. In addition to these toxic products, there are dredgers installed in the Falémé riverbed. This is in breach of article 44 of the same code, which states:
By the time the authorities adopted this code in 2019, the Falémé river was already dying as a result of dredging. Since then, this new text has raised hopes among the people living along the river. Many were hoping for an end to this practice. Unfortunately, these machines still operate in certain areas of Kéniéba. What matters to them is the lure of profit, not the preservation of health and the environment.
Since the end of March 2023, in the Fadougou area, as in many other villages, you can walk several kilometres along the Falémé riverbed without seeing a trace of water, due to the effect of the dredgers and sludge (residue from washing the ore) that are dumped there all day long. The few rare spots of water, signs of the river’s survival, are contaminated by cyanide, a heavy metal more deadly than mercury and acids. Mr Doumbia, Regional Director of the Kayes Water Laboratory, explains that cyanide can kill through inhalation of contaminated air, through the skin or through food.
The proliferation of cyanide worksites
It is available in sufficient quantities in the communes of the Kéniéba cercle where gold panning is practised. We wondered about the conditions under which these cyanide workings, which are now proliferating in the Kayes region, are set up. Moussa Sissoko is a paralegal in the village of Brokone, in the commune of Sadiola, who has fought several battles against the evils of gold mining. He defends and guides victims of gold mining and other sectors without compensation.
In his view, the village chiefs have sole responsibility for setting up the work sites. They are the ones who show a steppe, a place without trees, but far from the village to prevent contaminated water from the building sites from infiltrating the soil and destroying the trees. However, the work sites along the Kéniéba road, 1km from the village, are located in areas thick with trees, not steppes. Some operators even cut down large trees to get a better location.
Between Kayes and Sadiola, in the village of Krouketo, there are a hundred or so cyanide worksites in operation, some of them clearly visible even to tarmac users. A. Cissé works on his relative’s site with two foreigners from a neighbouring country. According to him, it is difficult to estimate the number of building sites in the area. But he estimates that around a hundred work sites have been abandoned after the ore has been emptied.
Unlike the Brokoné site, the Krouketo site is not surrounded. It is one of the largest sites in the Sadiola commune and covers an estimated 47 hectares. We found two GPS coordinates: 2795+37C Kourkéto, 27C6+QM7 Kourkéto. The president of the national federation of gold panners, Mr Keita, admits: “In Sadiola, it’s not hidden. We don’t even have to drink the water in Sadiola. We are in the process of preparing a mission to Sadiola”.
Mr Moro Macalou is a local councillor in Sadiola: “The installation of these building sites is beyond the control of the town hall. It’s the village chiefs who take care of it”, he says. This implies passivity or complicity on the part of local councillors, because Article 47 of the Mining Code states:
In the commune of Dabia (Kéniéba cercle), there are large numbers of these infrastructures. On sites that are fenced off, plastic mats can be seen at the bottom of the ponds. But it’s their location that raises questions: the forests are being destroyed over time and the vegetation is becoming less lush in these agro-pastoral areas par excellence. Worse still, some are located not far from watercourses such as rivers or the Falémé. However, the Kayes Water and Forestry Department has no figures for the area of forest damaged by gold panning in the region.
Contamination of surface water exceeds the lethal dose by 0.05%
When the gold miners finish the cyanidation process, the emptied ore is thrown back into nature. And then the old ponds are abandoned with their dose of cyanide. In an interview with us, Professor Adama TOLOFOUDJÉ explains that cyanides from these ponds or sludge find their way into surface waters such as wells, rivers or marshes through rainwater run-off. This polluted water is lethal and a danger to humans, trees and animals.
To check whether the water was contaminated with cyanide, we approached the National Water Laboratory in Bamako to obtain information on water quality study reports. This organisation has carried out several studies in this area. However, our efforts were in vain, as the laboratory explained that its data was sensitive and could not be released to the press.
So we went to the Falémé river, which is the largest watercourse in the area serving the populations of Mali, Senegal and Guinea. In each of these countries, people are increasingly crying out in distress at the sight of this river dying as a result of the dredgers and chemicals used by gold miners.
We took water samples there to submit to specialists to test their quality. This led us to the commune of Dabia, in particular the villages of Makouké-Ngara, Mamoudouya and Makouké-Niafa on 29 June 2023. The three samples were analysed by the National Water Laboratory in Bamako, and the results were alarming. The first sample was taken in Makouké Ngaraya.
This pollution of the ecosystem does not only affect areas in Mali, but also in Senegal. And cyanide is not the only source of contamination, there are also other heavy metals such as mercury, lead etc.
At the Kéniéba Reference Health Centre (Centre de Santé de Référence – CSREf), the head doctor, Dr Diarra, admits that the chemicals used by gold miners are a source of food poisoning. When asked about cases of cyanide poisoning, he said that it was difficult to give precise figures for cases involving cyanide alone.
However, it has enabled us to obtain an overall score on cases of chemical food poisoning, carried out between 2016 and 2023 in its centre. This document shows that 3,209 people were victims of chemical food contamination, including 1,632 men and 1,577 women. According to the same document, 63 people have died of food poisoning at the Kéniéba CSRF over the past 7 years.
In an article published in April 2023 entitled “La Falémé face à la menace de l’or” (“The Falémé faces the threat of gold”), our BBC colleagues revealed the high presence of heavy metals in well water in the Kédougou region of Senegal. Our colleague, Maria Gerth Niculescu, author of the article, reports the words of Dr Fodé Danfakha, former Chief Medical Officer of the Kédougou Health District: “Levels have been found up to 300 times higher than the doses recommended by the WHO (World Health Organisation)”.
According to the same source, Dr Fodé revealed a dangerous presence of heavy metals in the bodies of 16 people and 21 sheep suffering from neurological disorders, who had been sampled.
Mr Fofana has a large garden of around 10 hectares, located next to our second sampling site. In an interview with us, he said that he had repeatedly alerted the local authorities to the contamination of the water by toxic products. Many of his trees died after being sprayed with water from the river. We saw in his garden that several orange trees had been neutralised by the effects of these toxic products.
“The water from the river is killing my plants. I’ve lost several orange and banana trees. Before the water was polluted, I could earn around 5 million FCFA selling bananas. But with this water, getting a million is a challenge”, he adds. This gardener is also worried about the contamination of wild animals that come to drink from the Falémé River.
The Falémé is a tributary of the Senegal River, rising in Guinea. It forms a natural border between Mali and Senegal, and is estimated to be 650km long. This watercourse used to attract livestock farmers during the dry season, as their animals would drink from it. Nowadays, however, the water is poisonous to animals because of the effects of dredging and toxic products.
In a study report published in 2021 and entitled ” Wefe Sénégal Project – Support for water resource management and the water-energy-agriculture Nexus in the Senegal River Basin” (“Projet Wefe Sénégal – Appui à la gestion des ressources en eau et du Nexus eau-énergie-agriculture dans le Bassin du Fleuve Sénégal”), prof. Tolofoudié warned: “Even if we stopped all dredging and gold panning activities, we would have to wait almost 20 years for the colour of the water in the Falémé to become normal”.
At the Kayes regional veterinary services, the head of the department, Dr DARA, points out that livestock farmers have all abandoned the Kéniéba area, which was their first destination. The reason is that the animals are short of water, as most of the surface water is polluted with cyanide.
According to him, some farmers had complained that their herds had died as a result of contamination by the toxic product used by the gold miners. However, for technical reasons, the department was unable to take samples to confirm or refute the farmers’ claims. Mr Diassana, head of the livestock sector in Kéniéba, also mentioned the loss of certain herds as a result of cyanide contamination.
In the commune of Sadiola, Mr Moro Macalou points out that animals frequently die after being contaminated with cyanide. But he deplores the lack of sanctions against the perpetrators because, according to him, the victims generally only claim their livestock. This is an alternative that the gold miners have accepted without a murmur.
Contaminated fish, a danger for consumers
When a river is contaminated by a high dose of cyanide, the lives of the fish in it are in danger. “We often see dead fish floating in the water. But we don’t catch them because we don’t know what they’ve died of”, says Bakari Sagata, a fisherman in the commune of Dabia.
When the dose is not high, some fish do not die, but remain contaminated and end up in the nets of fishermen who find it difficult to sell them on the market because some informed people are aware of the pollution in the water. “We’re having trouble selling the few fish we catch alive. Some customers also refuse to buy them because of the poor quality of the water in the river,” adds Bakari Sagata.
Mr Doumbia is the Regional Director of the Kayes Water Laboratory. He also explains that cyanide pollution of water contaminates animal and plant plankton, which are the main food of fish. And by consuming these fish one after the other, humans contaminate themselves and contract diseases that can lead to death. That’s why Mr Doumbia is warning people: “People can accumulate doses that become lethal”.
Mr Segata says he is distraught at the inaction and complicity of the technical services. In a disillusioned tone, he admits he is pessimistic about the future of his sector: “Fishing is no longer a livelihood in the cercle of Kéniéba. In the recent past, I used to earn 30 to 40 kg of fish a day, but now I can barely get by on two kilos. But we buy nets and other equipment. Just like the river, the fish are also dying”.
Yacouba Konota is the president of the fishermen of the Kéniéba cercle. He is aware of the contamination of the fish: “I personally alerted the authorities to tell them that the fish are contaminated and that they are dangerous for consumption because of the toxic products that are being dumped in the river. You have to look at the quality of the water”.
The president of the fishermen of the Kéniéba circle also denounced the passivity of the services responsible for monitoring gold panners and waterways. According to him, this attitude has led many fishermen to abandon their nets in favour of placer fishing, because there are no fish left. “On the Senegalese side, there are few fish; they chase us away under the pretext that the Malians are destroying the river. Even this morning, there were dredges where I was fishing”, says this interviewee. He also admits that contaminated water kills fish eggs, hence the absence of fry in the Falémé.
Mr Dem is the head of the local fishing department in Kéniéba. He admits that some well-advised people now shun fish from the Falémé. To be able to sell these fish, the fishermen mix them with those from Manantali, where there is a dam.
Laxity or complicity on the part of control or repression services?
Many of the people we spoke to complained about the inaction of the state agents responsible for looking after the environment and their complicity with the gold miners. In Sadiola, a site owner told us: “Toxic products are not transported by motorbike. Trucks full of cyanide leave directly from Bamako, the capital of Mali, to here”.
Mamadou Dabo is President of the Association pour la Protection et la Survie de l’Environnement (Association for the Protection and Survival of the Environment) and outgoing president of civil society in the Kéniéba cercle: “Everyone here knows that there are shops where these products are sold… And these products come by road, in vehicles. Faced with this situation, I wonder whether the people in uniform are turning a blind eye to the phenomenon, or whether they are not doing their job”, he wonders.
In his view, those who destroy the environment are “untouchable” because they are protected by the local authorities. When civil society comes face to face with the authorities and these gold miners, it has its problems: “We’re up against a very powerful, very powerful group. It’s a lobby,” he says. Mr Guindo is the head of the local Environment and Pollution Department in the cercle of Kéniéba. He acknowledges the use of these products by gold miners, especially mercury, which “women hide under their loincloths”.
On the subject of cyanide, the head of the local Environment and Pollution Department in the Kéniéba cercle is categorical about the complicity of village chiefs who allow cyanide worksites to be set up: “Even last Saturday, in the village of Batama, I was informed that people from a neighbouring country had set up a cyanide worksite near the village. I organised a mission and we found that this had been done with the complicity of the village chief and a councillor. The new occupants said that they had paid the village chief 200,000 FCFA before setting up the site and that they had to pay him 50,000 FCFA every month. We seized their equipment and destroyed the site. Mr Guindo points the finger of blame at the border control services for allowing these products to enter the country.
Investigation carried out by Oumar BAGAYOGO with the support of the Norbert Zongo Unit for Investigative Journalism in West Africa (Cellule Norbert Zongo – CENOZO).
“The analysis revealed the presence of cyanide in the sample at a dose of 0.59%. It should be noted that there is a cyanide worksite near this sampling site, some 200 m from the river. The second sample taken at Makouké Niafa showed cyanide contamination of 0.26%. The sample taken at Mamoudouya showed the presence of 2.14% cyanide in the water. According to the National Water Laboratory, when surface water contamination exceeds 0.05%, this is the lethal dose for all living organisms. In other words, the river is contaminated to a maximum of 2.09 times higher than Malian standards. This constitutes a real danger for living beings”.
