You don't want to lean over too far when peering down one of the dark narrow man-dug mine shafts at Riverstone Resources' (rvs-v) Karma gold project. If you were to fall, the 15-metre-to-60-metre plunge could do some serious damage. Climbing down a shaft on purpose, as artisanal miners do every day here, comes with its own risks. There's nothing to stop the shaft walls from caving in, as they have elsewhere in this country. And snakes and scorpions are known to populate the grooves carved into the sides of the shaft that miners grab as they scale down to the bottom. Add 40-degree temperatures and poor ventilation and you've got a lot working against you.
展开▼
