Why Mali?

The easy and short answer:

• There is a Gold Rush going on right now.
• Malis strategically position in the area geographically. Information can easily be spread in the country of only 15 million and over the boarders to other countries. The common language in the region is French, but also other local languages that not follow the land borders. The problems in the adjacent countries are similar, but much worse.
•  A well-developed and stable democracy compared with many other countries in the region.
• A government that is aware of the problems and actively is working to improve the conditions, but do not have sufficient resources and funding for education of artisanal miners.
• A budget of say 50 000$/year to educate Artisanal miners would be more than 5% of what the government today spend for educational films and other educational efforts in this fields targeting artisanal miners.
• Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. Even very, very small contributions make an impact and a big difference. At least 40% of the people are living for less than 2$ a day. The Gross National Income/person 2013 was 670$. That’s an average of 1.83$ a day for every person living in Mali. You see. Small money can change lives forever.

Some very serious problems to try to solve.

• Total enrollment rate for children in primary education went down 2011. This was the first time ever, since the statistic survey started in the 1960-th. This is mainly be course of the ongoing gold rush and exploitation of child labor.
• The Artisanal miners use Mercury to enrich the gold concentrate (We will explain that later in detail) This is absolutely not necessary and have serious implications for generations to come. It´s a very toxic metal, and destroy the environment for 100´s of years to come. This is very easy and cheap to overcome.
• Famine. 100 000 of farmers are leaving their families and fields to go mining instead. This had led to price acceleration in food prices and arable land to overgrow. Many people does not have money to buy enough food anymore. In the near future, to brake arable overgrown land again and farm after some years, without machines, takes a long time, many years and starvation will certainly follow. You will probably think that mining is more profitable. Yes, perhaps two or three years, but when the whole country is out after gold, it will be overcrowded in the gold fields (it is that partly already) and soon mined out. It takes time to find another gold spot´s and starvation will certainly follow in the meantime.
• Corruption and violence. Almost every single country in the world becomes more or less corrupt and more violent during and after a gold rush. No exceptions. Should we just stand beside and look at this and just accept that there’s nothing to do? NO. This is a complicated mechanism, but one of the factors is powerlessness and that the rich get richer. With education we want to get the Artisanal miner richer.
• Multi billion and multinational giants with state of the art techniques excavating areas big as small countries just in some years. Tax evading and sneaking out the money before the governments and the local peoples noses. The Government in Mali are actively working against it, but more is to do about it.
• Deforestation and desertification by miners needing the wood to reinforce mine shafts, prepare food and build huts or other small accommodations on the sites. But this as also a problem with some mining company's devastation of large areas.

But why all this talk about Artisan Miners and what are they?

The Artisanal miners is the everyday people who have lived and mined in the area for at least the last 2000 years. Most of them use the same old unchanged Technics even today. It´s estimated that an average Artisanal Miner gets 0.17 gram gold in one days hard work of 8-12 hours.

This type of mining has the potential to create sustainable income for millions of Africans. Artisanal mining as a whole has far less environmental impact than large-scale mines, but Mercury pollution is a serious problem, and we will address that. Artisanal mining is the second largest environmental polluter of Mercury in the world. But, compared with large-scale mining, which is more energy consuming, more greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide are released, and more waste products is produced,  artisanal mining impact the environment relatively low and can be much lower in the future.

The growth of the Artisanal sector can be targeted in a number of factors. Equipment upgrades or optimization of existing equipment. Mechanization of some tasks and processes. Artisanal mining can however only advance the technology to a limit. After that it becomes a different category of mining, small scale mechanized mining, and that is not our primary goal. But it can eventually be a alternative in the future to help some village collectives to develop that.

The basic techniques need to be maintained, meaning the amount of mechanical assistance that can be added is limited. But in whole, it is a mining technique that easily can be more effective with very basic training and education.

The educational part of the project is similar to the projects for farmers. With some basic skills the harvest for a single farmer can increase, with benefits for the whole community. It´s exactly the same with Artisanal mining.

Without heavy, expensive and complicated equipment as in large scale mining that does the majority of the work, more workers are needed, creating more employment opportunities for countries where these are scarce. It is estimated that across developing countries, artisanal mining is the main incomes for more than 20 millions of the world’s poorest people. In a continent as rich in natural resources as Africa, mining is one sector which its countries really can take advantage of if it is done in a responsible, sustainable and environmentally friendly manner.

Many Artisanal miners can today only stand beside and look att the high fences sourrounding the large scale mining complexes or be evicted from mining places, mined in generations when a new such mine is established.

They then see the gold disappear abroad with none or very low income to the region.

We shall never forget that it is their country, their livelihood, their future and existence that's on stake.

This is the people we want to help.

Some facts

The Republic of Mali or Mali for short is named after ancient Malian Empire is landlocked and located at the interior part of West Africa surrounded by Algeria to the north, Niger to the east, Senegal and Mauritania to the west, Guinea to the southwest, and Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast to the south.

Mali has a total land area of about 1,240,000 sq.km and about 20,000 sq. km is covered by water. Less than 4% of the total land area is arable. That is agricultural land or land good for farming. Although Mali is landlocked and mostly desert, two major rivers, the Senegal and Niger Rivers run through the southern part of Mali where the majority of the people live, providing enough fresh water for several of the southern communities. Fishing and farming plays a major role in Mali's economic structure thanks to these and several other rivers in the southern parts of the country.

Mali has a total population of about 15.5 million people with a population growth rate around 2.6%. About 36% live in urban areas in major cities such as Bamako the capital of Mali and smaller towns like Sikasso and Mopti. Bamako have about 2 million inhabitants. There are several ethnic and racial groups. The Mandes (including Bambaras, Malinkes, and Soninkes) form about 50% of the total population. Peuls make up about 17%, Voltaics about 12%, Songhais about 6% of the total population. Tuaregs and Moors form just about 10% of the total population. Islam remains the most dominant religion with about 90% of the total population being tolerant Muslims adapted to local conditions. Christians form just about 1% of the total population. Indigenous believers make up the remaining 9%. Although French is the official language, about 80% speak and understand the local language Bambara and several other African languages which helps in communication.

Just like its neighboring countries Mali have much of natural resources such as gold, uranium, hydropower, salt, phosphates, limestone, gypsum, kaolin, granite, and large unexploited deposits of iron ore, copper, manganese, bauxite and tin.

Despite the rich natural resources, the country remains one of the poorest in Africa with about 40% of its population living below poverty line. According to World Health Organization, about 20% of Malian children under age 5 is underweight.

Mali has a literacy rate of just 25% for the total population. In other words, just about 25% of Malians above age 15 can read and write which is one of the worst literacy rate in the world. The female literacy rate in Mali today is even lower. Primary education in Mali is free, but the parents have to pay writing books, pencils and transportation. The majority of the Malians do not have enough money for that.

Mali's HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate of 1% is far better than in many other African countries. About 80 000 today live with HIV/AIDS. Besides HIV/AIDS, malria, bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, schistosomiasis, typhoid fever and hepatitis A, continue to threaten several lives in Mali today.