There is no refuge from the blistering heat at this artisanal gold mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Any trees that might have provided shade have been consumed by the mine, which covers an area the size of five or six football fields.
About a thousand people - men, women and some children - swarm across the open-cast mine near Iga-Barrière, about 25km east of Bunia, the administrative town of the Ituri Region.
The scene has all the trappings of a 19th century gold rush, apart from the hum of diesel generators powering pumps to drain water from the open shafts, while hawkers sell drinking water in translucent plastic bags.
Mtsajme, 21, has worked as an artisanal gold miner for more than half his life. “I have grown up in the job,” he told IRIN. “I started as a child when I left school at eight. It is all that I have known.”
When his stint at this mine finishes, Mtsajme will move to another. “There are too many [gold mines] to count [in Ituri]. One is born and one dies every day,” he said. .........................
Artisanal miners face an array of occupational hazards, including: mercury inhalation while extracting gold from ore; tunnel and open-shaft mine collapses; women experiencing spontaneous abortions due to heavy labour; and the complete absence of water and sanitation facilities.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97356/The-poverty-of-the-DRC-s-gold-miners
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