Despite the dangers, unregulated small-scale mines continue to thrive and attract thousands of gold miners.
More than 70 people have died in southwestern Mali after the collapse of an artisanal gold mine last week, officials said, the latest disaster in a region prone to mining accidents.
Karim Bethe, a senior official at the National Directorate of Geology and Mining, shared the details with The Associated Press on Wednesday, calling it an accident.
Oumar Sidibe, a gold miners' official in the southwestern town of Kangaba and a local councillor, confirmed the death toll to the AFP news agency.
“It all started with a noise. The earth started to shake,” Sidibe said. “There were more than 200 gold miners in the field.”
While it was unclear what caused the mine collapse that occurred on Friday, the Ministry of Mines said in a statement on Tuesday that it estimated that “several” miners had died in the Kangaba district of the southwestern Koulikoro region.
The ministry said it “deeply regretted” the collapse and urged miners and communities in the area to “comply with safety requirements.”
A ministry spokesman, Baye Coulibaly, also told Reuters news agency on Wednesday that gold prospectors dug galleries “without meeting the required standards.”
“We have advised against them on several occasions to no avail,” Coulibaly said.
The Malian government offered its “deepest condolences to the bereaved families and the Malian people.”
He also urged “communities living near mines and gold miners to scrupulously respect safety requirements and to work only within the perimeters dedicated to gold panning.”
Informal and small-scale artisanal miners are often accused of ignoring safety measures, especially in remote areas, and accidents like these are common in Mali, Africa's third-largest gold producer.
“The State must put order in this artisanal mining sector to avoid these types of accidents in the future,” Berthe told the AP.
While Mali's mining sector is dominated by foreign groups, including Canada's Barrick Gold and B2Gold, Australia's Resolute Mining and Britain's Hummingbird Resources, artisanal mines continue to flourish and attract thousands of gold miners.
“Gold is by far Mali's most important export and will account for more than 80 percent of total exports in 2021,” according to the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.
He added that more than two million people, or more than 10 percent of Mali's population, depend on the mining sector for income.
Mali produced 72.2 tons of gold in 2022 and the metal contributed 25 percent of the national budget, 75 percent of export earnings and 10 percent of gross domestic product, the former mines minister said last year Lamine Seydou Traore.
But gold mining in the Sahel region is dangerous and human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned the use of child labor in artisanal mining operations.
