Speakers - 2026 Speakers

Title: Empirical studies on natural water resources in alluvial gold ore mining communities

Abstract

Artisanal gold mining and processing involves usage of large quantities of water, during mining and traditional gravity separation of ore panning. In these rural areas, the main sources of water for these gold processing activities are the natural occurring streams and rivers. Miners collect water with their head pans or pumps from these streams to wet their ore pits during digging, and also conduct panning of the excavated gold ore in any nearby flowing water. It is of great concern that these same water resources are used by the people in these rural communities for their daily activities including consumption. It is also of note that farm products by the locals such as palmwine and palmoil that are sold in cities are essentially made using same flowing water supplies. The thrust of this research is to conduct material testing on water from atleast 5 rivers/streams in gold mining communities and compare the obtained water characteristics with known standards.