On the flats beside the river stood a line of sluices fed by water
pumps. To recover gold, the miners directed water down a sluice and
shoveled ore in at the top. The water carried the ore over strips of
carpet nailed to the bottom of the channel. Light soils flowed away
while the heavier, gold-bearing gravels snagged in the carpet. They
would use mercury to concentrate the gold, handling the toxic substance
with bare hands. According to Moussa Bathily, a Teranga geologist,
Friday was the day reserved for this gold recovery. No one would work at
the mine site on Friday. I asked him if that had anything to do with
Friday being the Muslim holy day. “Oh, no,” he said. “They leave the
mine because they say that Friday is the day the devil comes to put back
the gold.”
http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2013/11/gold-secretive-trading-business
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