Technical Mission to the Artisanal Gold Mines in Upper Guinea
The Blacksmith Institute together with the GEF/UNDP/UNIDO Global Mercury Project sponsored the mission of three technical experts namely Marcello M. Veiga, Shefa Siegel and Patrick Schein to investigate the use of mercury in artisanal mining operations and to transfer knowledge about controlling mercury and cyanide in the gold mining industry to local authorities such as representatives of Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Health as well as Prefectures of Mandiana and Kouroussa. The mission was conducted from April 17 to 27, 2006. These represent the summary notes from the trip.
The local counterpart was The Centre d’Appui au Développement (CAD) a NGO based in Conakry with long history of implementation of rural development projects in the interior of Guinea. Mr. Cheick Camara and Joachim Dejean were the CAD representatives in this mission. Also as a counter part, Mr. Djibril Kamara representing the Guinea Ministry of the Environment, followed all the training classes and the filed trip to the gold fields in the Northeast of Guiinea. The mission also counted with the valuable presence of Dr. Amadou Diouf from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), Dakar, Senegal. The mission consisted of a series of classes to Guinean Government representatives and field visits. The classes were given by Marcello Veiga at the CAD headquarter in Conakry. The topics addressed in the 2-day classes were as follows: 1. artisanal gold mining around the world 2. mercury and gold processing methods used by artisanal miners 3. environmental and health effects of mercury misuse 4. techniques to reduce mercury emissions 5. techniques to increase gold production 6. awareness campaign used by the Global Mercury Project in African countries 7. use of cyanide in mining 8. environmental and health effects of cyanide complexes 9. problems with the joint use of cyanide and mercury in artisanal mining 10. sustainability aspects of artisanal mining, The field visits took place at the Prefectures of Mandiana and Kouroussa in the Upper Guinea Region in which the artisanal mining activities are rampant. The mission also consisted of meetings with the Minister of Environment, Director of Geology of the Ministry of Mines, Director of the Guinean Central Bank and Director of the Ashanti Goldfields, a mining company operating in Siguiri.
Additional Info
- Author(s)
- M Veiga, S Siegel, P Schein, C Camara, J Dejean, D Kamara, A Diouf
- Publication Year
- 2006
- Associated Partners
- GEF (Global Environment Facility) , UNIDO (UN Industrial Development Organization), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), Blacksmith Institute
- Language
- English
- Publishing Institution Webpage
- https://www.unido.org/
- Data Source Classification
- Program Report
- Research Type
- Primary
- Research Methodology
- Primary - OBSERVATION, Primary - ANECDOTAL
- Thematic Tags
- Technological, Equipment, Environmental, Mercury, Pollution
- Minerals
- Gold
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Country
- Guinea
- Last Updated
- October 2, 2019