Project ARISE Multi-scale study of artisanal gold mining processes in West Africa to develop better safety practices

Name: Ahmed Amara Konaté

Institution: CEA Mines et Société, Institut Supérieur des Mines et Géologie de Boké

Country: Republic of Guinea

Dr. Ahmed Amara Konaté is a 2022 ARISE fellow, and is a teacher-researcher at the Institut Supérieur des Mines et de la Géologie in Boké, Republic of Guinea. On the educational front, he earned a PhD in Applied Geophysics from China University of Geosciences (CUG-Wuhan) in 2015, and obtained his Habilitation to Supervise Research (HDR) in Geological Resources and Geological Engineering from CUG-Wuhan (in 2017).

He obtained his Specialized Certificate in Applied Groundwater Modeling from UNESCO-IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands (in 2019). Since 2020, Dr Konaté has headed the Laboratoire de Recherche Appliquée en Géoscience et Environnement at the Institut Supérieur des Mines et de Géologie de Boké.

As a teacher-researcher, he supervises Master's and PhD students in their research. Dr Konaté's current research aims to develop new approaches to solving environmental and societal problems linked to mining activities in West African countries.

Project: Multi-scale study of artisanal gold mining processes in West Africa to develop better safety practices

The Environnement Minier project he is developing uses a multidisciplinary approach (mining, hydrogeology, geophysics, geomatics, geotechnics, etc.) to objectively characterize impacts and their evolution over time, and to improve artisanal gold mining techniques.

Multi-scale satellite image analysis, laboratory and pilot-scale studies will be used to develop a profitable, safe and environmentally-friendly artisanal gold mining model. Artisanal gold mining (AGM) is practiced by 5 to 6 million people in Africa.

In full expansion, AGM suffers from practices based on a lack of planning, the use of rudimentary tools and the uncontrolled use of toxic chemicals. There are no quantitative data on the environmental impact of AGM. The knowledge gained from this research will help to improve the management of AGM and should ultimately provide solutions to promote smoother gold mining, with less impact on the environment.

The methodologies developed in the course of this research will be extrapolated to different sites in West Africa, in collaboration with researchers working in these fields. This work will also enable a transfer of knowledge from the academic world to public authorities and gold miners, as well as a transfer of skills and integration into universities working within the Réseau Activité Minière Responsable et Développement Durable, ACE Partners.