Following Gold: From the Ground to the Hands
Documenting the people, processes, and realities behind artisanal gold production in Côte d’Ivoire.
From the ground to the hands: an artisanal gold bar in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire. Photo by Miléquêm Diarassouba, Photojournalist & Visual Storyteller in West Africa.
In Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire, I documented the journey of artisanal gold, from extraction to transformation. Behind every gram of gold lies a chain of labor, expertise, risk, and human stories that often remain invisible.
This assignment was carried out with IMPACT, an organization working to strengthen responsible natural resource governance and support communities affected by mining activities.
In Dabakala, artisanal miners spend long hours extracting and processing ore, relying on experience, physical labor, and traditional techniques to recover small quantities of gold.
Artisanal miners manually break ore during the early stages of gold processing in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
Gold passes through multiple stages of sorting, washing, concentration, and transformation. Each step requires precision and knowledge developed through years of practice.
Ore is processed and prepared for the next stages of gold recovery in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
Workers feed crushed ore into processing equipment during artisanal gold production in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
Finely processed material is sorted and prepared for gold concentration.
Gold particles collected during the concentration process.
A small gold concentrate pellet recovered during the final stages of processing in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
A worker displays a gold concentrate pellet before the final refining stage.
The concentrated material that will later be transformed into gold.
Gold concentrate pellets collected before smelting and purification.
Molten gold is poured into a mold during the final stage of the refining process in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
Behind every gram of gold are human hands.
Beyond its market value, gold reflects the work, risks, skills, and aspirations of the people involved throughout the process.
Freshly cast, the gold bar is removed from the mold and cooled before inspection.
The finished gold bar after refining and casting at the artisanal mine in Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire.
The final result of the process: a gold bar resting in water after casting and cooling.
A small piece of gold carrying the weight of an entire process.
Project Information
Location: Dabakala, Côte d’Ivoire
Client: IMPACT
Date: October 2024
Photography and Storytelling: Miléquêm Diarassouba
