Time

Person Speaking,

lower thirds/ text on screen

Dialogue

00:00:08

VO

This is the Fandjora gold mine, in the southwest of Burkina Faso.

On these 40 hectors, thousands of miners are risking their lives in order to find a few grams of hope. 

Marcel is one of them.

00:00:31

Marcel

I go to my hole, and I come back quickly. 

00:00:37

VO

He chases the gold that will get him out of his misery.

00:00:43

Marcel

They say that gold is a very precious metal and that many French people are looking for it. They say it’s very expensive over there. But they don’t know how it is produced, nor how it is extracted. All I know is that they rob us here. It’s not okay. We don’t get any support, there are no hospitals, no schools. They treat the miner like an animal, like a savage soldier.     

00:01:10

VO

In just 4 years, Burkina Faso has become the 4^th biggest gold producer in Africa. 600 mines are active, both industrial and traditional.

The former president Blaise Compaoré let this gold rush go out of control, a gold rush that has helped the country’s development.

Today, more than one million people are digging for gold.

However, these people are still facing poverty.

This west African country with its 18 millions inhabitants remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

For the past 9 years, Marcel has had the same daily routine: digging frantically into the soil of Fandjora.

00:02:04

Marcel

My new gold well.

00:02:08

VO

This gold well is only 10 metres deep, barely any wider than a manhole.

00:02:19

Marcel

The gold is the stone itself. The gold is inside the stone. When you see the stone, you have to keep digging.  

00:02:44

VO

The gold is found in the quartz: a very hard rock.

In Burkina Faso, the workers have to gather 10 to 15 bags of this white ore in order to obtain 1 gram of gold dust. The concentration is very low.

00:02:53

Marcel

We all have hope, we hope to earn.  

Yes it’s good. At least the colour is nice, it is presentable. It means that there is gold.

00:03:15

VO

At this stage, it is only Marcel’s expert eye that can make out the gold ore. It is invisible to the naked eye. 

00:03:23

Marcel

It is this kind of gold. You see, the gold on the rock. If the gold is on the top like this, it’s fine. It’s a good sign.

00:03:42

VO

The Fandjora mine is legalised. If Marcel finds gold , he will have to pay a fee to the head of the site. Having carried up 10 bags from the well, he will save 2 of these for his boss, and will share half of his income with the four miners that work for him.

Just like Marcel , most miners are from Burkina Faso. But the mine also attracts hundreds of workers from Mali and Sudan. They travel thousands of kilometers in the search for gold. 

In order to maximize the profits, entire families work in the mine. Children are involved too. They turn the soil over and breathe the thick dust that emerges.

At the age of 14, the boys are sent into cavities that can be up to 100 meters deep. Just like the 17-year-old Soumaele, everyone is hungry and weak.

00:04:40

Soumaele

I have only eaten beans and had Nescafe.

00:04:49

VO

As their bodies are still thin, it is easier for them to go down the holes than it is for the adults.

00:05:02

Soumaele

When I go into the hole, I am not scared. When you dig your hole, you feel like you are chasing something. You can’t stop.

00:05:15

VO

Soumaele hides his fear but his heartbeat can still be heard.  The descent lasts several minutes and feels like a maze of narrow cavities. Only a few pieces of wood support the fragile walls. After 13 years of exploration, Fandjora’s subsoil has depleted. Soumaele and others must go ever deeper and take even more risks if they wish to find anything.

00:05:53

?

Hey, up there! There is way too much water down here, we have to evacuate.

00:06:03

Soumaele

Yes, there is way too much water here too. 

00:06:06

VO

Bad news: the hole is flooded and is likely to collapse. At 30 meters under ground, such an accident would be deadly. But Soumaele and the other miners will keep digging for several hours. The air is impossible to breathe. Temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees.

00:06:32

Soumaele

I have been doing this for 2 years. Once, I found 50 grams of gold and 20 grams of gold.  

00:06:58

VO 

For just a few grams of gold, Soumaele has once more risked his life.

00:07:07

Soumaele

The carpenter asked us to bring wood down to the bottom. We have to strengthen the cavity. 

00:07:18

VO

In order to fight the fear, most young people like Soumaele take drugs.

00:07:26

Miner

It’s cocaine. It’s to improve your brain, to gain strength. 

00:07:40

VO

Cocaine, cannabis, amphetamine… These illegal substances are all around the mine. But a painkiller, nicknamed "the missile" is the most popular drug.

00:08:04

Miner

When you take it, you are in great shape. It all happens physically, in your body.

00:08:14

VO

Tramadol is a synthetic derivative of opium. It is particularly addictive and dangerous when consumed in high doses. These counterfeit, often overdosed tablets are sold for less than 40-euro cents and are slowly destroying the miners’ health.

Over the years, nearly 5000 people have settled in this mine that resembles a refugee camp, swept by the Harmatan, a dry and warm wind that triggers thick dust.

The residents have named the mine Al Qaeda because it appeared out of the sand in 2003 when the United States was fighting against the terrorist organization in the region. It has kept the nickname ever since, as it is one of the most violent winds in the country.

Despite the harsh conditions, the mine is organized like a city. Small shops provide the necessities.

When money is available, there is even a hairdresser who freshens up the dusty miners.

-

Marcel’s family has been working in the mines for many years. Marcel, his wife Elisabeth and their three children, lead a very humble life in these small brick boxes, without water or electricity.

00:09:58

Elisabeth

This is my house, this is where I sleep. My children sleep on the bed, I sleep on the floor. You see how it is here, it is not easy.

Get down from the bed!

We don’t often earn from the gold, it’s often very little, very little. We don’t earn a lot.

00:10:25

VO

In spite of all of his efforts, Marcel barely manages to make 1 euro per day: just enough to feed the family. The meals mostly consist of greasy rice and vegetables. Meat is an inaccessible luxury.  

At 38 years old, it is difficult for Marcel to change career paths. The former crop cultivator left his millet and maize plantation, which was destroyed by successive droughts. Living in a country where the unemployment rate affects nearly every second Burkinabe, Marcel has no other choice.

00:10:56

Marcel

The problem is that the land is poor. You have to buy the products. Good fertilizers, products that will dry the weeds, to sow, to buy oxen and plough the land. For that too, you need money. This is what makes people think that gold mining is simple. But it is not as simple as that.

00:11:28

VO

Before transforming the dust into gold nuggets, Marcel still has hours of work.

00:11:37

Marcel

You put it like this.

The gold is in this flour.

00:11:56

VO

Being heavier than the other residues, the gold stays in the hair of this carpet. When washed, the carpet releases the gold.

00:12:09

Marcel

That’s it, this is the beginning of a new hole, the yellow part, the gold dust. That’s the precious metal that people in Africa die for. And it’s not easy.   

00:12:32

VO

To mix the gold, Marcel uses mercury, a poison that he handles with his bare hands.

The mercury then compresses the gold. To get rid of it, it needs to be burnt.

00:12:48

Marcel

Florent, move away!   

00:12:51

VO

The highly toxic smoke reaches Florent, the youngest member of the family. When inhaled this way, the mercury attacks the nervous system and all vital organs. This substance kills little by little, but no one is aware of the danger.

00:13:06

Marcel

That’s it, it’s all done. It has become gold again. This is gold.

00:13:17

VO

Marcel has never found more than this gold nugget of barely 1 gram.

In the mines, it is rare to see anyone make a fortune.

Yet everyone dreams of destiny such as Rasmané’s.

00:13:34

Rasmané

I have two groups who want to sell gold. Let me know, I’ll call you back.

00:13:42

VO

Rasmané is one of the main gold buyers in the mine. The former miner started a business with his father one year ago. 

00:13:55

Rasmané

Ah ok.

00:13:57

VO

He is in charge of 10 of the mine’s counters and buys up to 1500 euros of gold per day.

(00:14:14) The transactions keep coming in. Marcel weighs the gold with a scourge balance and uses matches as a counterbalance.

00:14:20

Seller

Are you sure that my gold doesn’t weigh more than a gram and a match? 

00:14:23

Rasmané

See for yourself if you can add a match.

(00:14:25) I’m telling you that there is no more than a gram.

(00:14:34) That’s 32 euros. 

00:14:38

VO

The miners have to share the 32 euros. This amount is the result of 20 days of work deep down a hole.  They were hoping for more. 

00:14:48

Seller  

That’s not a good price. 

00:14:50

VO

Rasmané bases his prices on the global gold market that he pulls up on his mobile phone.

00:14:58

Rasmané

I have a look at it every morning. If it goes up, if I can see that I can sell it for a good price downtown, I raise the price here.

00:15:12

VO

When Rasmané is doing well, he earns about 2500 euros per month. To ensure that the most beautiful nuggets don’t get away, he is financing about fifteen poor miners.

00:15:24

Rasmané

Hello, how are you? 

00:15:28

VO

He gives them money for food while he waits for them to find the gold. 

15:34

Young man

This morning we came to ask you for some help because we couldn’t find any gold.

15 :45

VO

Rasmané embodies one of the mine’s greatest success stories, but strives to be discrete in order to ward off any unwanted attention.

Every second day he leaves the mine to sell his gold to the most generous buyer in Banfora, the closest town. He doesn’t tell anyone out of fear that he will be attacked on his journey.

16 :10

Rasmane

I’m going to go back to the market. On the road, there are hold-ups, highway gangs, they stop people to steal their goods and sometimes they even steal their motorbikes.

16 :24

VO

In Banfora, counters like this one are smelters that buy gold from the mines.

As long as the state has verified that the company has a buying permit, it will enforce no other regulations concerning the provenance or extraction conditions of the gold. Once the precious metal is sold on the other side of the world, conditions of its extraction are unknown.

Every day, the complete lack of transparency of this supply chain threatens the gold miners’ and their families’ health more and more.

(17 :05) Marcel and Elisabeth are worried about their 12-year-old daughter Diana.

17 :19

Elisabeth

Yesterday when she came home from school, she said to us that she wasn’t feeling well, that her body was hurting.

17 :26

VO

As the most vulnerable, children are the first to suffer from these terrible life conditions.

Marcel does not have the financial means to take Diana to hospital so he takes her to a small clinic a few kilometres away.

17 :53

Doctor/nurse

We tested her to see whether she has malaria as her body is very hot. The test is positive so she has malaria.

17 :56

VO

Like her whole family, Diane has caught malaria in the mines after having being bitten by an infected mosquito. Dirty water and appalling health conditions cause major disease outbreaks.

18 :20

Marcel

Malaria is a real problem for us. Especially in this area here, malaria is very, very common. It makes young people very tired. Well maybe It’s to do with the climate and sleeping without mosquito nets.

18 :34

VO

Three quarters of gold miners and their families are infected.

However, in the clinic, the most urgent cases are those of miners suffering from lung disease.

(18 :47) The first symptom is a chronic cough caused by overexposure to dust. Every day, Doctor Ousmane Paré treats around 50 miners suffering from this illness. 

19 :01

Doctor

They are surrounded by dust as they dig, when they go into the hole, it’s all dust, they drink it up. They inhale it. That’s why they are congested.

19 :15

VO

But here it is impossible to give a sophisticated diagnosis. The clinic doesn’t have any electricity or any radiology material. Without any means, the miners let their health worsen.

No study or prevention program has been led by the authorities. As it is, thousands of men and women risk dying of cancer and lung disease.

19 :28

Doctor

We’re going to make an incision. It will hurt a bit but you must be courageous.

19 :47

VO

Deprived of equipment, the doctor can only cure superficial wounds.

20 :00

Nurse

As it’s not done in an aseptic environment, we have to give antibiotics to prevent any sort of infection.

20 :09

VO

The average life expectancy of the miners is not more than 45, 10 years less than the national average.

But in the mine, the biggest danger is landslides. Last night disaster struck.

A miner was stuck in a fifteen-metre-deep hole.

He died of suffocation. The young man was 17 years old.

Local police and a nurse from the clinic went to go confirm the death.

20 :44

Miner

I was supposed to be the one going down but I had gone to eat. I left to get something to eat and he replaced me. Soon after we heard him screaming.

20 :57

Nurse

When you went down, what state did you find him in?

21 :00

Miner

When we got down, we found him in the mud.

21 :02

Nurse

The dirt had buried him?

21 :04

Miner

The dirt had covered him completely.

VO

The miners couldn’t do anything to save the young man. There was no support holding up the tunnel that caved in. The heavy muddy earth gave him no chance of survival.

21:21

Soldier

This is the fourth death that I have confirmed in the last two weeks – these things are common here. The tunnels collapse. The area is easily flooded. Look at the earth inside you see that it can’t resist. Sure there are awareness sessions. But what do you want? Everyone run towards the gold, everyone is looking for money. It’s complicated. The gold mining phenomenon in Burkinau Faso is such that stronger measures need to be taken.

You are responsible for the site; we will give you back the body so you can organise the burial.

22 :13

VO

The teenager was part of a small Christian community, which Marcel belongs to. As the family of the deceased boy didn’t ask for the body back, the congregants are organising his funeral.

(22 :36) He will be buried a few metres away from the pit that collapsed on him.

22 :48

SONG

May the earth be light for him. May he rest in peace

22 :56

VO

There is no official number but the Fandjora mine is the site of several dozens of fatal accidents every year. The majority occur during the rainy season. Disturbed by the number of deaths, Marcel hopes that one day he will be able to get his family out of this nightmare.

23 :13

Martin

My children will not be miners like me. I am fighting so that I can improve their life quality.

23 :25

VO

Whilst Martin aspires for a different life, an increasing number of miners come to work here in spite of the danger. Their work is destroying the land, which is already fragile due to global warming.

The enormous amount of mercury and cyanide used contaminates the earth, air and water tables. Gold mining extraction waste is thrown directly into the river.

This water full of mercury is the only available source of water during the dry season. Entire villages depend on it for drinking, washing and fishing.

The polluted water is gradually suffocating the fish.

24 :07

Fisherman

We belong to the people of fishermen. We know the water, we look at the water, and we realise that it is not clear, it is dirty. When the water stagnates, it is dirty. I pull up my nets every three days. Sometimes, we are able to catch 10-15 kilos, but never more. It’s not a lot. It’s not a lot at all. As I don’t catch enough fish, I have started growing tomatoes. 

24 :42

VO

A solution that could turn against him, because every time he waters his plants he contaminates them.

24 :53

Woman

Do you know what mercury is?

24 :59

Fisherman

It’s the first time I’ve grown things on this land. If harvest is good, I’ll stay here.

25 :07

VO

Up to now, nothing has been done to prevent the environmental and health risks of gold mining.  Within the sector, only one person has stood up to denounce this crisis.

In the primary school in Fandjora four 10 year olds have stopped going to school this past month.

25 :35

Teacher

Everyone is here.

25 :36

VO

Teacher Soungalo Hema is trying his best to make his young students aware of the dangers.

25 :40

Teacher

The dangers of entering a gold mining site.

Why are children not allowed on the mining sites Mamadou?

25 :54

Mamadou

It can make you sick.

25 :55

Teacher

It can make you sick. There are illnesses on the sites. The hole can collapse, right? You can die by looking for gold.

You can become involved in crime.

What else? There is something you forgot to mention. Sometimes girls that go there will be harassed and boys will force them to sleep with them and they become pregnant. Right?

26: 29

VO

In spite of all these dangers and the laws against working before the age of 16, most of these students are already gold miners. They work after school to be able to buy food, clothes and also pens and books for studying.

26 :45

Teacher

Who has never set foot in a mine?  I am saying he who has never gone to find gold to get money.  So you see that out of 48 people, there are only 4 who have never set foot there. That means that 44 of them are real gold miners.

Up to now I have still never seen a governmental organisation come intervene in the villages regarding this problem.

I am fed up… You try and save them but a lot of the time it’s in vain. It’s very painful but the phenomenon is stronger… is stronger than us. I ask myself what will happen to all of us in this region in 10 years’ time. The children will abandon their classes. And at some point we will run out of gold. There will be nothing to do, so I imagine that crime will increase and that’s what we will have to deal with.

28 :14

VO

The teacher should finally be able to regain a bit of hope.

After 30 years of inertia and corruption under the presidency of Blaise Compoare, the government of Roch Kabore is supposed to apply a new mining code.

There is hope that institutionalising gold mining will allow the population of Burkina Faso to benefit from the richness of their land.