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Madagascar - Mining towns after the rush
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What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149024.jpg
Andilamena, a mining town north of the lake. At 110km from Ambatondrazaka, it takes about 8h in the infamous taxi-brousses to get there, the road is not paved.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148975.jpg
Almost all gemstore resale stores are closed. Only a few small stalls are still active, they are tended by Malagasy people, the Vazaha (Malagasy name for foreigners) do not stay in town during the recessions.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148981.jpg
Almost all gemstore resale stores are closed. Only a few small stalls are still active, they are tended by Malagasy people, the Vazaha (Malagasy name for foreigners) do not stay in town during the recessions.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148995.jpg
Almost all gemstore resale stores are closed. Only a few small stalls are still active, they are tended by Malagasy people, the Vazaha (Malagasy name for foreigners) do not stay in town during the recessions.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148998.jpg
Almost all gemstore resale stores are closed. Only a few small stalls are still active, they are tended by Malagasy people, the Vazaha (Malagasy name for foreigners) do not stay in town during the recessions.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148882.jpg
Dalal (56yo) is the president of the association H.MPA.VATO.A, an association for mineworkers of "informal" mines, i.e. illegal. The purpose of the association is to educate the miners and act from time to time in case of conflict with the bosses vazaha.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148887.jpg
Rice pad in the sunrise, on the way to an abandoned mine site. The vast majority of people are rice farmers.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148890.jpg
Fording a river on the way to the mine.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148895.jpg
Tavy (slash-and-burn traditional cultivation technique) is the number one cause for deforestation in Madagascar.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148896.jpg
Andasiakondro, abandoned gem mine...
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148898.jpg
Andasiakondro, abandoned gem mine...
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148922.jpg
Miners dig the soil and extract blocks that they will put in the river to get the stones to sort out. Their equipment is often metal pieces they give to a mechanics to transform into picks.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148924.jpg
Miners dig the soil and extract blocks that they will put in the river to get the stones to sort out. Their equipment is often metal pieces they give to a mechanics to transform into picks.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148926.jpg
Miners dig the soil and extract blocks that they will put in the river to get the stones to sort out. Their equipment is often metal pieces they give to a mechanics to transform into picks.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148903.jpg
Blocks of soil are sorted and immersed in the water of the neighbouring river in order to separate stones from the gangue of clay or other type of soil. The pebbles are then washed and scrutinized hoping to discover an interesting stone.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148908.jpg
Blocks of soil are sorted and immersed in the water of the neighbouring river in order to separate stones from the gangue of clay or other type of soil. The pebbles are then washed and scrutinized hoping to discover an interesting stone.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148910.jpg
Blocks of soil are sorted and immersed in the water of the neighbouring river in order to separate stones from the gangue of clay or other type of soil. The pebbles are then washed and scrutinized hoping to discover an interesting stone.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148913.jpg
Blocks of soil are sorted and immersed in the water of the neighbouring river in order to separate stones from the gangue of clay or other type of soil. The pebbles are then washed and scrutinized hoping to discover an interesting stone.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148879.jpg
Every miner dreams of finding a big stone, like here some sapphires on Jules' cellphone.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148938.jpg
Andasiakondro, abandoned gem mine...
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148961.jpg
A miner poses in front of an abandoned tunnel.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148941.jpg
Andasiakondro, abandoned gem mine...
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148943.jpg
Andasiakondro, abandoned gem mine...
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
One hour of taxi-moto and two hours walk from Andilamena is a mining site that seems to be abandoned. But a small community of 18 people continues to work and live there. They baptized the place Andasiakondro (literally: camping banana) and that's all that remains of a place that sheltered up to more than 10,000 people at its peaks of activity.
The surrounding environmental destruction is still very visible: deforestation to provide materials and allow crops, with traditional tavy burns which are so harmful, but also water pollution.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
After the Mining Rush, Andilamena, Madagascar
After the Mining Rush, Andilamena, Madagascar
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148952.jpg
A little downstream of the river, another abandoned site where some tunnels have collapsed and are now filled with water, thereby unusable. The wooden stakes are used to try and stabilize the edges of the hole.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149009.jpg
Once the blocks are released from the ground and broken into a transportable-sized pieces, they are piled on the side of the road and brought back into town in zebu carts.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149010.jpg
Razifa often cuts his hands because the pieces of quartz are sharp, broken with a home made sledgehammer.
In some places landslides and water spurts are very similar to those encountered in precious stone mines.
In some places landslides and water spurts are very similar to those encountered in precious stone mines.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149012.jpg
About an hour walk from Andilamena is a quarry of pink and gray quartz. This type of mining is called "industrial" or "formal". The land belongs to a "boss" (often Malagasy) and is declared to the government. It is legal to work here, the average salary is 1,000,000 FMG per month (people in the countryside often speak in Malagasy Francs although the currency changed in 2003, this corresponds to 200,000 ariary, about 60 euros ). But it is stable and does not depend on the luck of finding a stone like in gem mines.
The work is no less dangerous and the complaints are the same: landslides, falls of stones, etc. The main difference is that miners do not live on the site but in the city and therefore diseases due to lack of hygiene in illegal mines, promiscuities, lack of food, etc. are absent.
The work is no less dangerous and the complaints are the same: landslides, falls of stones, etc. The main difference is that miners do not live on the site but in the city and therefore diseases due to lack of hygiene in illegal mines, promiscuities, lack of food, etc. are absent.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149015.jpg
About an hour walk from Andilamena is a quarry of pink and gray quartz. This type of mining is called "industrial" or "formal". The land belongs to a "boss" (often Malagasy) and is declared to the government. It is legal to work here, the average salary is 1,000,000 FMG per month (people in the countryside often speak in Malagasy Francs although the currency changed in 2003, this corresponds to 200,000 ariary, about 60 euros ). But it is stable and does not depend on the luck of finding a stone like in gem mines.
The work is no less dangerous and the complaints are the same: landslides, falls of stones, etc. The main difference is that miners do not live on the site but in the city and therefore diseases due to lack of hygiene in illegal mines, promiscuities, lack of food, etc. are absent.
The work is no less dangerous and the complaints are the same: landslides, falls of stones, etc. The main difference is that miners do not live on the site but in the city and therefore diseases due to lack of hygiene in illegal mines, promiscuities, lack of food, etc. are absent.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149016.jpg
The eldest of Razifa's four children helps his father to clear a large piece of quartz. He unfortunately does not take advantage of a day without school but is out of it completely, de-scholarized.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148883.jpg
A piece of quartz in an open mine.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148966.jpg
Mama Tsiri (31yo) owns a gargoty in the village of Behorefo, on the way to an old precious stone mine. At the top of the activity, the village had 4 restaurants, 2 hotels and the taxi-brousse came there. Now she is the only one with a catering business. She hopes that the mining will resume. She was mining herself, just after school, but she stopped when she got married and had her first child.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148992.jpg
Voja (23) in front of a closed gemstone store. He worked in the rice fields but began mining here in 2015. He has gained nothing. Now he washes taxi-brousses, his salary allows him to survive but not to go elsewhere. He feels stuck, trapped.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148989.jpg
Jean-Marie (45) builds zebu carts. He waits until he sold enough so he can go to the new mine in Didy. One carts costs 7.000.000FMG, 400euros.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148990.jpg
Rafalimanana (66) has worked in many mines throughout his life. Since this year (2016) he works as a peddler and makes donuts of bananas. He earns about 1,000,000FMG (200,000 ariary or 60 euros) per month.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148997.jpg
In this street one can find stalls of local resellers, these are the only ones still open, in spite of the strong decrease of activity.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148881.jpg
Small rubies and sapphires in the hands of a reseller in Andilamena. She did not go to the new mine because she lacks the money.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148991.jpg
Saholy (40) has been a stone dealer since 2000, before that she was a seamstress. She cannot go back to sewing because she says she is too old now. She did not go to the recent mine in Didy because the investment is too important, one needs a working fund more than five times higher than the one she has here (~ 3,000,000 FMG is about 180 euros ).
She awaits for the market to resume, these are cycles... Here she presents small rubies and sapphires of low quality.
She awaits for the market to resume, these are cycles... Here she presents small rubies and sapphires of low quality.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149000.jpg
Pierre (34), became a miner just after school. Having never found a big stone, he now helps his wife who works for Heri Madagascar. He continues working in the mines from time to time, he does not look for big gains, just enough to feed him and his family. The solar electricity kiosks Heri Madagacar bloom in many villages. One can rent lamps for 150 ariary for the night, charged thanks to the solar panels installed on the roof.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149003.jpg
Pierre (34), became a miner just after school. Having never found a big stone, he now helps his wife who works for Heri Madagascar. He continues working in the mines from time to time, he does not look for big gains, just enough to feed him and his family. The solar electricity kiosks Heri Madagacar bloom in many villages. One can rent lamps for 150 ariary for the night, charged thanks to the solar panels installed on the roof.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149022.jpg
Mrs. Esther (50) in front of her gargoty (small restaurant / bar / grocery store), next to a gem shop.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149005.jpg
Mrs. Esther has owned a gargoty (small restaurant) since 2001. Her son came with the whole family to work in the ruby mine that had just opened, he never found a big stone but little by little they managed to invest. She also rents a few houses and complains of the Sri Lankan vazaha who do not pay the rent and disappear overnight with debts.
Her shop works well and she could even adopt a little orphan and take care of him with her husband.
Her shop works well and she could even adopt a little orphan and take care of him with her husband.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149018.jpg
Doda (40) owns a sawmill. He has been working in many mines but now he has too many orders and focuses on his business. Going mining means neglecting his activity and also his family, but now that he has a good situation he can be a sponsor for some others and give them money so they can got to the mines.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0148885.jpg
Memory picture of Doda (40) in a gem mine when he was younger.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149019.jpg
Pierrot (32) was a farmer and a cattle herder. He wanted to get rich and tried his luck. He won a bit but scams ruined him. He went to the new Didy mine but the conditions were really too difficult and dangerous. He returned to Andilamena where his family is based and has no work at the moment. But he does not feel unhappy because here the opportunities (land to buy, etc.) are more numerous than in Antananarivo from where it comes.
What's left after a gem mining rush?
Arnaud De Grave / Le Pictorium
LePictorium_0149020.jpg
A road is being upgraded or simply built, for 40km between Andilamena and an old ruby mine. Three construction machines must complete the works before the beginning of the heavy rains, towards the end of 2016.
The company that handles the work and will exploit the mine is Russian. My interlocutor states that the company has all the permits for the operation. In any case, improving roads can only do good to local people. He said he was frightened by all the bush fires he had been constantly seeing for a week that he was been here to oversee the work.
The company that handles the work and will exploit the mine is Russian. My interlocutor states that the company has all the permits for the operation. In any case, improving roads can only do good to local people. He said he was frightened by all the bush fires he had been constantly seeing for a week that he was been here to oversee the work.