Mali: Almaghmor Gold Rush
A nugget of gold. © CC0 Pixabay/Csaba Nagy
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The northwestern locality, a hundred kilometers from Timbuktu, is out of control of the Malian state, which nevertheless aims to impose its law everywhere on the national territory. But many people continue, for a week, to storm a site hoping to find the yellow metal and change their lives.
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With our regional correspondent, Serge Daniel
For more than a week, braving insecurity and difficult weather conditions, many have been heading for Almaghmor, a Malian locality located a hundred kilometers from Timbuktu, in the north-west of the country. On the site in the middle of the desert, natives would have discovered an open-pit gold mine.
On site, according to the videos that loop on social networks, we can see large holes already dug. With the strength of the arms, it digs with pickaxes, but also with more advanced tools. Other gold miners have metal detectors in hand, others have arrived on the scene with generators to work day and night. Some even dream of installing an internet network in the locality and especially an important water point.
Security on the ground is provided by armed men. According to two elected officials of the region interviewed separately, young people have already found on the site a significant amount of gold gravel. It remains to be seen how much yellow metal is recovered, not everything that glitters is gold.
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- Mali