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Mauritania: Gold Rush in the Desert

March 23, 2023

Mauritania is the last country in the Sahara where gold has been found. Thousands are hoping to strike it rich - but digging for gold is dangerous and impacts upon human health and the environment.

https://p.dw.com/p/4P81Q
Flash-Galerie 2011 Jahresrückblick national Deutschland
Image: picture alliance/dpa

This is because to find gold, you need to dig extremely deep holes in the ground; and to extract the precious metal, you need toxic mercury. But that doesn’t put the gold diggers off at all. They compete for the best mining sites and within a short space of time, an entire settlement has sprung up on the desert sands.

Michele Cattani went to take a look.

 

 

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