The Toll of Gold Mining in Senegal

By Erika Pietrzak, September 22, 2025

Gold mining in Senegal fuels jobs but spreads mercury poisoning, deforestation, and river pollution—endangering communities, food supplies, and ecosystems. A new Faleme River ban offers hope for a safer future.

Mining is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world, but presents particular challenges throughout the many countries of Africa. Strenuous manual labor, extreme heat exposure, incredibly arid working environments, and outdated technologies used for generations all combine to create high risk for health issues and mining accidents. Senegalese gold mining accidents are detrimental to dozens of workers each time they occur. The gold mining industry is one of the most destructive and disruptive business sectors to the environment.

Senegal is a major gold mining country, with 98 percent of Senegal’s gold mines located in the Kédougou region. In 2018, these mines produced 86.6 billion CFA francs of gold (about 4.2 tonnes). The gold mining industry employed 32,500 people in Senegal that same year. Across this vast span of mines, mercury is often used to separate gold ore from soil or sediments with Senegal using 5.2 tonnes of Mercury annually, including 3.9 tonnes used per year in the Kédougou region alone, leaching mercury toxins into the environment. Another one of the most obvious negative impacts of gold mining comes from widespread deforestation as “artisanal and small-scale mining often involves over-cutting wood to support the mine shafts and meet the housing and heating needs of the workers.” After multiple trees are cut down, the demand for wood rises as there is no longer a local sustainable supply, fueling further deforestation in nearby towns to try and meet this demand. Abandoned mines further exacerbate problems of land scarcity and food insecurity for Senegal’s growing population as they significantly degrade the soil.

Gold mining results in “displace[d] communities, contaminate[d] drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy[ed] pristine environments.” The production of one gold wedding ring generates twenty tons of waste. The leakage of toxic  waste from these mines containup to three dozen chemicals that are dangerous to humans and wildlife, such as arsenic, lead, and mercury. Mercury is a persistent pollutant “circulating through air, water, and soil, eventually concentrating in fish and other wildlife that people depend on for food.” In Senegal alone, “artisanal mines are estimated to release between 12 and 16 metric tons of mercury” annually.

Source: AP News

Even without directlydumping waste in the surrounding environment, these chemicals contaminate nearby waterways easily. Mercury poisoning causes tremors, muscle weakness, vision and hearing impairments, birth defects, loss of coordination or balance, and even death. To make matters worse, these symptoms usually only present when irreversible damage has already been done. Mercury exposure is particularly harmful to smaller animals, such as birds and amphibians, which experience low survival and reduced viability of their offspring as a result of this pollution.

With gold mining being done largely with bare hands and no masks, the women and others mining these minerals are directly exposed to them and in turn indirectly expose their children. It is especially dangerous because predominantly women work in these gold mines and “mercury easily pass[es] through the placenta and breast milk, threatening developing brains and immune systems.” Gold processors, also mostly women, typically handle between five and ten grams of mercury per month. They are drawn to the job for the salary, which is nearly double the national average for Senegal and can change the future for many impoverished families.

However, many of the miners in Senegal are misinformed about the true dangers of the mercury contamination they experience. Many miners do not believe it to be as dangerous as it is because mercury poisoning takes a considerable amount of time to have a noticeable impact on people. Furthermore, there are few sanitation systems available in rural areas near  mining sites. As a result, “people are dumping [mercury] directly into the river.” Many of the consequences of this contamination take years to feel, but become irreversible if not addressed before the extent of the pollution is felt. Now, the red color of many rivers reveals the damage to many communities.

Source: RFI

In 2013, Senegal signed onto the Minamata Convention, an international treaty on mercury designed to protect human health and the environment from mercury pollution. Although it was not enacted in Senegal until 2017, the nation promised to build 400 mercury-free gold processing units in 2020. It complements the National Action Plan Senegal has recently developed, whuch aimed toeliminate “the use of hazardous materials in small-scale gold mining.” However, by May 2025, only one unit was built and remains largely unused. Even this progress will not mean much unless mining-related deforestation and soil degradation are also addressed.

In 2018, a Duke University study “found dangerously high levels of mercury and its more toxic chemical cousin, methylmercury,” in nearly every sample of “soils, sediments and rivers near artisanal gold mines in” Senegal. Levels of pollution were approximately ten times the safe amount with one sample having pollutant levels one hundred times higher than amounts considered safe. Crucially, the study found that methylmercury is not only forming from mercury waste in aquatic systems, but is also forming in soil from microbial activity. This expands health concerns from mercury contamination beyond fish consumption, to eating any crops or crop-feeding livestock.

Source: CCIJ

The Faleme River stretches from Guinea down Senegal’s border with Mali through to the Senegal River, including passing through the Kédougou region. Over the last 20 years, 19 African countries have flocked to the region in search of gold. Mining by the river has caused chemical discharge and mining-related dredging to pollute the river. From 2021 until 2024, the number of illegal mining sites along the Senegalese and Malian sides of the Faleme River has increased from 600 to 800. Dredging river beds like the Faleme to search for gold aggravates the health related problems of using cyanide and mercury in gold retrieval while actively harming endangered species. The use of cyanide and mercury “makes fishing, market gardening and agriculture impossible, rendering life even more precarious for the communities along the Falémé.” Toxic substances from mining have been found in wells, agricultural products, livestock, and even within humans along the river. As a result, this once vibrant ecosystem is in desperate need of restoration.

One year ago, Senegal suspended all mining activities for three years on the southeastern Faleme River to protect the local environment and communities. Until June 30, 2027, mining in all Senegalese territory within 500 meters of the river’s left bank will be completely suspended. This was the first and largest action taken by Senegal’s new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was elected in 2024 to clean up pollution. It is up to the armed forces in Senegal to maintain this decree and protect the river. However, confusion on “who the illegal gold planner[s] are or where they are operating” complicates the ban’s implementation. The willingness of locals to comply with the ban and eagerness to help the authorities present hope at the potential for societal level, real change.

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