Gold fever

by Luca Catalano Gonzaga
Part of Invisible people
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Burkina Faso is one of the poorest countries in the world, yet ranks fourth in Africa’s production of gold. Most of the gold comes from small-scale mines, where children work alongside their parents from dawn till dusk. They only get paid based on the amount of gold they find, and sometimes they won’t make any money for weeks, even months. The work is hazardous. Mines collapse frequently, and the working environment is intoxicated with dangerous chemicals such as mercury, that is used in the extraction process. Thousands of Burkina Faso’s youths live and work in these sites. Most of them have never attended school. For many of them, the gold mines are their only home. The International Labor Organization considers mining one of the worst forms of child labor due to the immediate risks and long-term health problems as miners are exposed to dust, toxic chemicals and heavy metals—on top of back-breaking manual labor. In fact, gold diggers employ rudimentary tools and there is no safety system. In the Bani gold mine, the men crawl on all fours, along tunnels 80 meters underground, propped up with bags of earth and iron bars against the risk of landslides. Women and children deal with the crushing of stones and dust, which is deposited everywhere and is highly harmful to their health. The prospector is obliged to sell his gold, once treated, to the company that holds the authorization for exploitation. The work in the Bani mine is nothing but the dramatic story of modern slavery. A place made of desolation, of violated human rights, where “the future is excavated” without having a future, but with the hope of returning to light with some fortune in your hands. (text by Luca Catalano Gonzaga).

  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Gold miners as they enter the 80-meter underground tunnel to extract the gold. Every day they risk to be victim of earth collapses or accidents caused by their rudimentary work tools.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. For hours on end without light and very little air in one of the wells 80 meters deep underground. About 15,000 miners—a third of them are children— go down into pits that are as deep as 20 storeys and many of them are just as wide as a manhole.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A miner’s shift ranges from eight to ten consecutive hours.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A young gold miner checks sacks full of stones just extracted and looks for gold traces.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A woman who gets out of a deep cave, 100 meter deep, excavated to extract the rock material containing gold.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A woman busy with crushing stones. The space for movement is tight and dangerous.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010 Worker busy in crushing stones. Finally, water and harmful substances, such as mercury, are added to the pulverized rock, so to form an amalgam with gold, simply called “paste”.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A study conducted by UNICEF revealed that between half a million and 700,000 adolescents or pre-adolescents work in the mining sector in Burkina Faso. According to this research, 85% of them have never attended school; 50% of children live at the gold sites; 67%of work 10 hours per day.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Work has tired out a woman covered with dust from the stone she crushed.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Separation of the gold from the stone.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. The rudimental tools used to weigh the gold.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Around the area where the gold miners enter the underground tunnels, women and children crush the stones.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Young children work alongside their parents, to find small gold nuggets.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A young woman drinking water to revive after hours of work under the sun and heat.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Women and children crush some stones to extract gold dust. According to the Minister for Mines, a total of 12 industrial mines, 200 officially recognized artisanal mining sites and about 800 illegal gold panning sites were operating in Burkina Faso in 2017.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. The process of cleaning and washing the stones requires many hours under the sun. Gold fragments are then extracted.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Small shacks where women and children work together.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Around the gold mining area, a small community operates and survives every day.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Also, the children in the community are part of the exploitation. They work alongside their parents from dawn to dusk.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Female workers with their children during a break.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A moment of rudimentary life. International Labour Organization considers mining one of the worst forms of child labour not only because of the immediate risks, like mine collapse, but also because of the long-term health problems caused by dust, toxic chemicals and heavy metals— all on top of the consequence of back-breaking manual labour.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. After many hours of mining gold in Burkina Faso, Nuru, 13 years old, takes a short break.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Men at work filtering and washing the stones. Although Burkina Faso has long been regarded as a land lacking in natural resources, in the space of just a few years, the Country has become into a mining player specialized in the production of gold.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A gold miner bathes after a hard day at work. The dust and dirt that are inhaled during the day are very harmful.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A land which is rich in its subsoil yet unforgiving in its bareness.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. At a depth of 80 meters and with 50 degrees of temperature, men dig for ten hours a day to find the precious metal amidst the risk of collapse, highly toxic fumes and in close contact with mercury and cyanide.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. Gold miners as they exit from the caves. Thousands of Burkina Faso’s youths live and work in these sites in a Country where the literacy rate is 28.7% (World Bank).
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. The sacks full of stones are transported to be examined. The overwhelming majority of the gold mined in Burkina Faso is then exported. In 2017, 41.4 of the 46 tons of gold produced was exported abroad (estimates by the General Directorate of Mining).
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. A gold miner entering into one of the tunnels that goes deep down into the earth. Men, women and children scour the earth searching for gold and hoping to get rich. In reality, their working days are exhausting and it can take up to two weeks just to find the amount of gold needed to buy a smartphone.
  • Gold mine in Bani, Burkina Faso 2010. An exhausted gold miner, covered with dust and dirt. According to a report published in 2014 by the Canadian Fraser Institute, Burkina Faso is currently the sixth most attractive location in Africa for mining investors, overtaken only by Botswana, Ghana, Morocco, Namibia and Zambia.