Illegal gold mining in Africa spikes in August 2025 as record prices and cartel activity fuel a surge in illicit operations.

Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from ...

KAMITUGA, Congo — Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21 ...

Efforts are underway to rescue miners trapped in a shaft collapse at an artisanal gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The incident occurred over the weekend at a site in South Kivu ...

Nestled in eastern Congo’s Ituri province, the Chinese-run gold mine is rapidly encroaching on an area that many say it shouldn’t be operating in at all – the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, an ...

(AP Photo/Sam Mednick)ASSOCIATED PRESSChildren sit in a classroom with no windowpanes, built by a Chinese mining company, Kimia Mining, in Badengaido town in Congo, Sept. 23, 2024.

But demilitarizing the gold mines remains a challenge. Only a small fraction of the mined world’s gold comes from Congo — about 1%. But 98% of the artisanally mined gold in Congo is smuggled ...

Mining is a crucial revenue stream for Congo and it "can't place a higher value on the environment than on mining," he said. Kimia is supporting the population and has employed more than 2,000 ...

KAMITUGA, Congo (AP) — Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba ...

Mining is a crucial revenue stream for Congo and it “can’t place a higher value on the environment than on mining,” he said. Kimia is supporting the population and has employed more than ...

The mining cadastral told the U.N. that the boundaries were changed due to a letter from the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, the body in charge of protected areas in Congo, but ...

Mining is prohibited in protected areas, which includes the reserve, according to Congo’s mining code. Issa Aboubacar, a spokesperson for the Chinese company, Kimia Mining Investment, said the ...