Guinea's army closes Siguiri gold mines to secure gold for Conakry refinery
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mali Actu
The Guinean army has moved into Siguiri, the country's main gold basin in Upper Guinea, to enforce the closure of extraction sites, Mali Actu reports. Officially justified by environmental protection and the dismantling of clandestine networks, the operation also aims to secure supplies for the Nimba Gold Refinery, the gold refinery inaugurated in Conakry.
Activity was no longer simple artisanal mining: excavators and bulldozers were working the waterways, including the bed of the Niger River. The closure provoked a diplomatic storm, with rumours of targeted expulsions of Burkinabè circulating on social networks. Conakry denounces a disinformation campaign and stresses that the ban applies to all nationalities, Guineans included. The measure nonetheless affects more than 8,000 Burkinabè gold panners, and Ouagadougou has mobilised about 50 buses to repatriate its citizens stranded in Bamako. Burkina Faso's Security Minister Mahamadou Sana deplored the absence of three-way consultation between Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso before the operation.
Behind the environmental emergency looms a security issue. According to a report by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the clandestine gold networks of Siguiri are a financial windfall and a factor of regional instability, as the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) strengthens its presence in south-western Mali, on Guinea's doorstep.
This military intervention follows the ban on gold panning in the waterways of Siguiri, announced on 2 November, and the suspension of gold panning that drove thousands of people to leave the area on 5 November.
