Mali: Over 70 killed in gold mine collapse

According to a local official and the leader of a gold mining group in the area, more than 70 people died after a tunnel collapsed at a gold mining site in Mali last week.

“A sound preceded it. The ground began to tremble. In the field were more than two hundred gold miners. The hunt is finally concluded. Oumar Sidibe, a representative for the gold miners in the town of Kangaba in the southwest, told AFP on Friday that they had discovered 73 bodies.

According to an AFP report, a local councillor has confirmed the same toll.

Mali’s ministry of mines in a statement on Tuesday had announced the death of several miners but did not give precise figures.

The government offered its “deepest condolences to the grieving families and to the Malian people”.

It additionally urged “communities living near mining sites and gold miners to scrupulously respect safety requirements and to work only within the perimeters dedicated to gold panning” .
Among the poorest nations on earth, Mali is one of Africa’s top producers of gold.
Authorities struggle to oversee artisanal mining of the metal, and disastrous landslides frequently occur at gold mining sites.

Mali produced 72.2 tons of gold in 2022, and according to the country’s former minister of mining, Lamine Seydou Traore, in March of last year, the metal contributed 10% of GDP, 75% of export revenues, and 25% of the national budget.