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Mali: 48 killed in gold mine collapse in poorest country

Miscellaneous| 15 February, 2025 - 9:46 PM

Yemen Youth Net

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Gold mines in Mali

At least 48 people were killed Saturday when an unlicensed gold mining site collapsed in western Mali, Africa's biggest gold producer but one of the world's poorest countries.

"The death toll from Saturday's collapse has reached 48," a local police source said, according to Agence France-Presse.

About a year ago, more than 70 people were killed in a gold mine collapse at a mining site in western Mali. “It started with a noise, the ground started shaking, there were more than 200 gold miners at the site,” a gold miner in Kangaba said at the time.

Gold mining sites are regularly hit by deadly collapses where the activity is dangerous and authorities seek to control artisanal exploitation of the mineral.

Moreover, with a production of 72.2 tons in 2022 - including 6 tons through artisanal gold mining - this metal alone contributed 25% of the national budget, 75% of export revenues and 10% of GDP, then-Minister of Mines Lamine Seydou Traoré said in March 2023.

Mali is one of the leading gold producing countries in Africa, but it is one of the poorest countries in the world, as 50.3% of the population in Mali suffers from extreme poverty and cannot easily access food and clean water.

Source: Yemen Youth Net + AFP

| Keywords: Mali|gold mines
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