A pump roars on the muddy bank of the Ofin River, drawing its yellowish waters into nearby sluice boxes. Kwami, my driver and guide, stops the car by a makeshift roadside building. The structure is humble, but I’m still excited. After all, it is a real gold mine. I am in a country that for years has been known as the Gold Coast and which has one of the largest gold reserves on the planet. Today, I’m hoping to find some …
Ghana is dotted with thousands of small and mostly illegal gold mines like the one I’m about to visit. Foreigners rarely come here, and Hadji and Isaac, two local miners, are happy to show me around. Hadji leads me toward the river and teaches me how to use a gold pan - how deep to submerge it in water, how to shake it around and around to wash out the dirt. Then Isaac takes over. His job is to mix slippery mud with mercury in order to separate the gold. He does it with his bare hands. He hasn’t heard of mercury’s high toxicity, and grins widely as he shows me a tiny nugget he has found. A day’s worth of work.
Forty minutes later, as I walk toward the car across the yellowish mud of the riverbank, I glimpse at my boots. They are covered in gold dust….
Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown
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