ESTWING-FRANCE

We will not go into details on the problems because we are not specialists ... It's up to you to go into the subject.
We will just let you know about the possible problems and show you some pictures with a little comment.

As an obvious introduction : gold stimulates the greed of a neighboring country, of the minority political party, of poorly paid workers ...
Gold is not the reason invoked for the declaration of the troubles but it contributes to it.

A few years ago we talked a lot about diamonds from Bocasa and a French president; we also wanted to regulate the production of diamonds because they helped finance wars. For gold the problem is undoubtedly much more important but it is also undoubtedly much more interesting for the rich countries to leave it like this.

Problems for the environment.

The search for gold requires in certain regions "the lungs of the planet" to sacrifice a large forest region for a large working region with felling of trees and flooding of these lands ... construction of roads, supply of electricity .. (See photos above in Guyana)
The search for gold usually requires a lot of water which is taken away from the farmer. In tropical regions, this is not the problem, but in dry regions like Africa, it is a real problem of the survival of populations.
The use in tropical or dry regions of a lot of water combined with the mixing of the land causes pollution of rivers by heavy metals associated with gold. I would say "natural pollution".

In addition to this "natural pollution" there is also the "chemical pollution" caused by the products used to "capture the gold".
One of the capture products is mercury (normally banned) still used by "independent gold diggers". The product that replaced mercury is cyanide (I don't think it's too good for your health too). Research is still in progress to find less dangerous "sensors" ... A solution is "pointing its nose" with alpha-cyclodextrin but not yet in use.
The removal of cyanide from the gold industry is of the utmost importance. Alpha-cyclodextrin is believed to be a cheap, biologically harmless material derived from starch.

In addition to "natural pollution" and "chemical pollution" there is also the "resulting chemical pollution" indeed after having "captured the gold" it must be refined because minerals close to gold or residual are still present. The gold is roasted with a flux and the "impurities ... Lead, iron, Zinc" give borates and silicates which "are evacuated in the slag!"
To complete the refining molten gold is subjected to the action of chlorine (not really good for health) which forms chlorides from residual impurities ... (also to be eliminated!)

Societal problem:
The search for gold is often done for a large mining group and the economic benefits are not really felt in the country of exploitation. In this case, it would be preferable that it be "independent of the country" who exploit the gold ... the problem is that they use mercury to recover this gold and the mercury is dangerous for the environment (food chain ) and people in direct contact.

Large gold mining operations lead to population displacements outside the site (expropriation) and within the site. Displacements in the site can be inhabitants of the country ... or of the neighboring country, this leads to organized trafficking of arms and drugs but also of humans (for work in the mines or for prostitution).

In many countries gold mining is done by children ...

The following is found on "cameroonvoice" ... news from Cameroon.
It is a mini social drama that is being experienced in Kambele, a small town in the region renowned for its mineral wealth in eastern Cameroon. The search for gold, which is a very popular activity here, is everyone (children, men and women) who do it, "sometimes to the detriment of agriculture and school." ".

Indeed, if agriculture is part of the traditional activities in this very isolated locality where live about 3000 people, in houses built of beaten earth and covered with sheets or straw, gold panning has since relegated the work of the land. to the rank of "residual" activity.

Even if the goal of this work was to amass financial fortunes for individual and collective development. This is not the opinion of the observer on the ground, who relying on the testimony of a resident, notes that not only "the glitter obtained are most often sold" at a low price "", but that 'once a gold miner has managed to earn his 25,000 CFA francs, he uses them for lust (entertainment, drink, women), while preparing to start "work" again once the nest egg is exhausted.

A way of living today as if tomorrow does not exist, which must challenge the Cameroonian authorities , insofar as the end of gold could amount to the beginning of a social explosion which will inevitably bring the State and uneducated populations who have completely unlearned the meaning of work.

Political problem:
I'm not really going to go into the subject ... but if a neighboring country has ideas of going there !!
Some examples
In Guyana there are many illegal gold miners who fight with weapons to preserve "their territory" ... the French army must intervene in a muscular way ...
In Africa
There is a lot of gold in Mali (ahhh I think the French army was there not long ago).
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) there were no serious events.
In the Ivory Coast have there not been serious events.

After these little comments let's move on to the photos.