Arène de l’orpaillage : acteurs et enjeux des centrales d’achat d’or de Kadiolo, au Mali

Abstract

For more than a decade, the Kadiolo gold deposits in the Sikasso region have drawn many local and migrant gold miners of various nationalities. In this context of human influx and pressure on resources, the idea of gold group purchasing organizations has emerged as an appropriate management model to allow local communities to benefit from gold mining and compensate for its environmental effects. This article is based on ethnographic data and adopts a mixed bottom-up and top-down perspective to analyze the stakes and confrontations between actors around group purchasing organizations. It shows how these organizations are based on inheritance and the politics of belonging, thus making gold panning a mining arena and an electoral springboard.

Keywords

• gold panning
• group purchasing organizations
• local politics
• Kadiolo
• Mali
• mining