A deadly conflict broke out Thursday morning in the perimeter of the operations of the mining company Robex Resources, in Nampala in Mali.
The gold producer, whose head office is in Quebec, said in a press release that a group of miners, or artisanal miners, have entered the site. “An altercation with a gendarme caused one death and one injury among the gold miners”, mentions the press release, which also specifies that no member of the company’s staff was injured and that “all the collaborators and under -contractors have been taken care of and are safe”.
The management of the company expressed its condolences to the family of the victim. It was not possible on Thursday to obtain further details from the company.
Rodrigue Turgeon, co-head of the national program at MiningWatch Canada, points out that many local artisanal gold diggers work all over the planet and that tensions can arise between them and mining companies. He hopes that an independent investigation will be made and that, if it turns out that the mining company has a responsibility in these events, it will be brought to justice not only in Mali, but also in Canada.
For MiningWatch, this drama is reminiscent of others with which Canadian mining companies have been associated in recent years. A group of Tanzanian citizens is suing the company Barrick Gold in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, alleging that members of the communities surrounding the North Mara mine have been victims of violence, sometimes fatal, by forces of the order and security agents working on behalf of the mining company.
Production at the Nampala mine was suspended on Thursday. The value of Robex’s stock on the Toronto Stock Exchange fell nearly 20% during the day.
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