Opinion
Opinion
Gold mining in DRC, from the ore to the bar
For the people in the eastern DRC, small-scale gold mining is a key source of income. �e workers risk their lives digging for the ore, which passes through many hands before it becomes a gleaming bar of pure gold.
Back-breaking work Deep down, a miner in a rural artisanal gold mine chisels gold ore out of the earth. �e sha� team is composed mainly of excavators and bag porters. Miners spend six to eight hours down the sha�s each day. �e work is physically demanding. At this mine, around 200 kilograms of ore must be excavated to extract one gram of gold
Sacks of rocks for a gram of gold A miner maneuvers through a narrow tunnel junction, as his colleague waits in line. �e bags of ore he has been heaving through the mine, in the direction of the minesha� entrance, are in front of him. A�er agriculture, artisanal mining is the most important livelihood in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo( DRC).
30 kilos per load A bag porter carries his load downhill from the mine for processing. �e porters are paid 500 Congolese Francs- about $ 0.35( 0.29 Euros) at current Eastern Congo exchange rates- per bag by the sha� managers, and can make up to several dollars per day. �ey are among the lowest earners at the mine and, at this site, are o�en those who have migrated from other areas.
Encased in the rock A man kneels in front of a rock slab while breaking down gold ore with a grinding stone. Next, the remaining ore is manually ground down between two rocks to release the gold. �is is a slow and arduous process; one plastic basin can take several hours to work through. Water carriers and ore porters are visible moving up and down the mine hill, in the background. Valuable mud A man pours ore onto a sluice. �e ne ore purchased by specialist sluice teams is mixed with water and poured onto sluices. Due again to its high density, the remaining gold sediment sticks to the sluice blanket while the excess ows downhill. �e sediment is then gathered and sieved in a plastic basin using mercury. First sales A local on-site trader assesses how much to offer for the gold a client has brought him. �e gold and mercury compound seen in the trader ' s plastic dish is a dull metallic grey at this point in the treatment process. Many miners will look to sell these small gold quantities to on-site traders. Re ning gold A ' big trader ' heats the gold and nitric acid over a hot stove to rid it of any remaining impurities. Big traders deal in far larger quantities of gold than the local traders; they frequently trade more than several kilograms of gold in one week. �eir pro t margins are smaller than the local traders, but they trade in greater volume, which assures them a much higher income. Precious powder A�er heating, the gold is weighed on an
Page22 | Sep- Oct 2017 | FMDZ