Landslide kills several artisanal gold miners in southern Mali

BAMAKO, Mali — A landslide engulfed a group of mainly women gold miners in Mali, killing several of them, the governor's office of the Koulikoro region in the West African country said Thursday.

In a statement broadcast on Mali's national television, Koulikoro's governor, Col. Lamine Kapory Sanogo, said ''the women (gold miners) were numerous at an excavation in search of gold, and the excavation was surrounded by a dike that gave way and water entered with mud and engulfed the women.''

The office of the governor said the landslide at the artisanal gold mine in southern Mali happened on Wednesday. It said several of the miners were killed but did not provide a number.

This is not the first time such accidents have occurred at a gold mine in Mali, which is known as one of the three gold producing countries in Africa. In January last year, an unregulated gold mine collapsed in Mali, killing more than 70 people near the capital Bamako.

In recent years, there have been concerns that profits from unregulated mining in northern Mali could benefit extremists active in that part of the country.

The region of this latest collapse, however, is far to the south of that and closer to Bamako.

''Gold is by far Mali's most important export, comprising more than 80% of total exports in 2021,'' according to the International Trade Administration with the U.S. Department of Commerce. It says more than 2 million people, or more than 10% of Mali's population, depend on the mining sector for income.

Artisanal gold mining is estimated to produce around 30 tons of gold a year and represents 6% of Mali's annual gold production.