Kedougou Region
Kedougou's Sabodala gold mine (6.5t/year, 64% of Senegal) generates 331B FCFA amid 3.9t annual mercury pollution and 41t smuggled gold (2013-2022).
Kedougou represents Senegal's gold frontier—one of the country's poorest regions transformed by artisanal and industrial mining that generates 65% of extractive sector revenue. The Sabodala-Massawa mine (90% Endeavour Mining, 10% government) produced 6.5 of Senegal's 10 tonnes in 2024, contributing 331 billion FCFA to the economy including 128 billion directly to the state.
The region hosts over 20 nationalities seeking fortune, the gold rush dynamic creating environmental damage (3.9 tonnes of mercury annually from artisanal mining) and social disruption that wealth extraction accompanies. The July 2024 decree banning mining within 500 meters of the Falémé River, and 66 illegal sites shut down in 2024, represent regulatory responses to degradation that enforcement struggles to contain.
An estimated 41 tonnes of gold smuggled to UAE via Mali between 2013-2022 indicates the informal economy that operates alongside licensed extraction. Whether mining wealth can develop Kedougou—or whether the region functions as extraction zone where revenues flow elsewhere—tests whether resource endowment translates into poverty reduction for one of Senegal's most marginalized populations.