AP IMPACT: Kids working in African gold mines

Pladio

Pladio

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TENKOTO, Senegal - A reef of gold buried beneath this vast, parched grassland arcs across some of the world's poorest countries. Where the ore is rich, industrial mines carve it out. Where it's not, the poor sift the earth.
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These hardscrabble miners include many thousands of children. They work long hours at often dangerous jobs in hundreds of primitive mines scattered through the West African bush. Some are as young as 4 years old.

In a yearlong investigation, The Associated Press visited six of these bush mines in three West African countries and interviewed more than 150 child miners. AP journalists watched as child-mined gold was bought by itinerant traders. And, through interviews and customs documents, The AP tracked gold from these mines on a 3,000-mile journey to Mali's capital city and then on to Switzerland, where it enters the world market.
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I thought slavery was on its way out ...
 
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Child labor has been a staple of the 3rd world, well, pretty much forever. Doesn't make it right, but it's certainly not a new phenomenon.
 
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Child slavery goes back almost to the dawn of history and can be found across all cultures and nationalities if you dig back far enough. While I consider it despicable, if the only alternative was death (usually by starvation), then one can see why it has persisted. It can be argued that in some cultures, marriage was simply another name for the same thing. Child bride is not a modern term!!
 
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