Prospectors have been drawn to the area due to its reputation as a hotspot for finding gold.
Geopolitical tensions and uncertainties surrounding US President Donald Trump’s trade policy have driven gold prices to historic highs.
However, despite these high prices, the miners are not becoming wealthy, often only earning a small fraction of the world market price from traders.
Prospector Amadou Diallo believes that life is a gamble
“It’s not that deep, you know. About 10 or 15 meters. Wherever we are, we have to work anyway. You have to seize your opportunities,” he says.
Gold extraction in the region is based on a dangerous practice, where miners use mercury to separate small pieces of gold from rocks.
After the mercury is bonded to the gold pieces, they are taken to a dealer who removes the mercury by burning it off with a blowtorch, leaving behind a glistening lump of gold.
The environmental impact of this practice has been devastating.
Farmer and environmental activist Doudou Drama reports that their soil is contaminated, making it impossible to grow crops anymore.
“It’s really a great sadness for me to see the trees die. Mercury is a very dangerous product. It poisons the soil. It poisons the air. And it can cause lung diseases and deformities in babies,” he says.
Despite these health concerns, miners insist on continuing this practice, as they have no viable alternatives.
The Senegalese government has been trying to ban the use of mercury for years without success.
