Mali has stopped issuing permits for small-scale gold mining to foreign nationals after several deadly incidents.
Interim President Assimi Goita has “instructed the government to strengthen measures to avoid human and environmental tragedies,” Minister of Security and Civil Protection, General Daoud Aly Mohamedinne, said Wednesday.
The measures include suspending local authorities from granting artisanal mining permits to foreign nationals, the seizure of any equipment used to extract gold at small-scale mines and firing local authorities in communities where deadly mine incidents have taken place.
At least 49 people, many of them women, were killed after an artisanal gold mine collapsed in western Mali last month. The accident took place in an open-pit area where people had gone in search of gold.
Mali’s military leadership has taken several measures to reinforce its control over the country’s lucrative mining sector including a new mining code that increases the state’s stake in mining operations.
Africa’s second-biggest gold producer is currently locked in a dispute with Canadian company Barrick Gold Corp. over the revenue from its Loulo-Gounkoto mining complex, the country’s biggest gold mine.
