As gold prices surge, West Africa mine operators launch drones to detect wildcat miners
The team confiscated seven diesel-powered water pumps and a "chanfan" processing unit used to extract gold from riverbeds. The high-tech cat-and-mouse game is playing out with increasing frequency as record gold prices, now sitting above $3,300 (R59,639,18) per ounce, draw more unofficial activity - intensifying sometimes deadly confrontations between corporate concessions and artisanal miners in West Africa, according to dozens of mining executives and industry experts interviewed by Reuters.
"Because of the vegetation cover, if you don't have eyes in the air, you won't know something destructive is happening," explains Edwin Asare, Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine's head of protection services. "It's like you first get eyes in the sky to help you put boots on the ground.' Almost 20 illicit miners have been killed in confrontations at major mining operations across the region since late 2024, including at Newmont and AngloGold Ashanti's sites in Ghana and Guinea and Nordgold's Bissa Mine in Burkina Faso.
There have been no reports of official mine staff injured. In some cases, clashes at corporate mines caused production halts of up to a month, prompting companies to press governments for more military protection.
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