Protesters block entrance to mine project site in Norway.

A group of protesters from the environmental group Nature and Youth have blocked entrances to a mining project in the Hammerfest Municipality in Finnmark County on the northern coast of Norway. The group of about 70 protesters from all over Norway have took the step on Saturday 24 January 2026 in support of the local Sámi community, who believe that traditional fisheries for Salmon and Cod are threatened by the project. Protests of this kind are illegal in Norway, and previous protests at the site have led to protesters being detained by the police.

The location of Hammerfest Municipality the north coast of Norway. Google Maps.

The mining project, which is operated by Blue Moon Metals, aims to excavate around 74 million tonnes of copper ore from a deep pit mine beneath a former open pit mine, which was active in the 1970s. The Norwegian government has approved this project because it considers copper a vital resource for a transition to green technologies (i.e. replacing fossil fuel-derived energy with electricity generated by renewable means). 

However, the planned operation intends to dump waste generated from the mine into Repparfjord, an important fishing ground for the local Sámi community, who believe that this is likely to have a significant affect on local fish stocks. The practice of dumping mine waste into the sea is still legal in Norway, but is illegal almost everywhere else (the only other countries which allow the practice are Indonesia, Turkey and Papua New Guinea).

Protesters blocking an entrance to the Nussir Mining Project in northern Norway on 24 January 2026. The banner reads 'We promise a hell - no dumping of tailing in the Repperfjord'. Jannik Abel/Nature and Youth.

Blue Moon Minerals, who acquired the site in February 2025, aim to mine the site in line with a mining permit issued to the former owners, Nussir Property, a decade ago, but Nature and Youth argue that significant new discoveries have been made about fish spawning in Repparfjord have been issued since this time, and that on that basis the mine should not be allowed to proceed. 

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At least 32 miners killed in incident in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 32 people have died, with some sources giving a larger number of 49, following the collapse of a makeshift bridge at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The incident happened at the Kalando Cobalt Mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Saturday 15 November 2025, following an incursion at the mine by wildcat miners. The mine was closed at the time following heavy rains, which had led to concerns about the danger of landslides, but like many mines in the area is prone to incursions by informal miners, who take advantage of any suspension of regular activities. 

On this occasion the miners had entered the mine via bridge over a flooded trench to enter the site. However, soldiers who had been deployed to guard the mine fired upon these miners, injuring two and causing a panic which led to a large number of people trying to cross the bridge at once. While this was happening one of the walls of the open pit mine collapsed, with the subsequent landslide hitting the bridge.

The moment a landslide hit a bridge covered at a mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. AlJazeera. 

Informal artisanal mining is common in many parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, which like may other countries has granted concessions to mining companies in areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. However, little of the money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely, often at night or under other unfavourable conditions, which can put the miners at greater risk.

Artisanal miners at the Kalando site that until 2018, they had been free to operate as they pleased, but since that time the site had been taken over by a company with links to the family of President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Chinese business interests. The Congolese Government claims that it has tried to exclude untrained miners from the site precisely because it feared an incident of this type.

Cobalt is a critical component of lithium batteries, which are used in technologies such as mobile phones and electric cars. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt, but the industry is notoriously unregulated, with repeated reports of widespread forced labour, often of children, of workers being exposed to hazardous chemicals, and environmental destruction. Most of the extracted cobalt is exported to China, where it is used to manufacture electrical goods. 

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At least 48 deaths following collapse at gold mine in western Mali.

At least 48 people, most of them women and including at least one infant, have died in a collapse at a gold mine at Bilali Koto near the town of Kéniéba in the Kayes Region of western Mali on Saturday 15 February 2025. The incident is reported to have happened at an abandoned open-pit mine formerly operated by a Chinese company, which the women had entered to pan for gold, a traditional income-generating activity for women in the dry season in western Mali, and neighbouring parts of Senegal and Guinea, caried out since at least the time of the (famously gold-rich) medieval Mali Empire.

The approximate location of the 15 February 2025 Mali gold mine collapse. Google Maps.

Artisanal mining is widespread in many parts of Africa. It is often referred to as 'illicit', though in an area with little formal employment this is somewhat unfair, with local people viewing small scale mining as a traditional way of gaining some hard cash. The area is covered by poorly consolidated alluvial (river) sediments, washed out from the mineral rich Fouta Djallon Highlands, in neighbouring Guinea, since the last ice age. These loose sediments can be excavated and panned to produce small amounts of gold and diamonds. This can be a dangerous task, as sediments close to the surface are likely to have been worked by previous generations of villagers, requiring deeper pits to be dug into the, often waterlogged, sediments, with the accompanying risk of pit collapses. The Bilali Koto mine appears to have been originally excavated by a Chinese firm using machinery, but following its abandonment to have been entered by local women using artisanal tools.

West Africa has a distinct two season climatic cycle, with a cool dry season during the northern winter when prevalent winds blow from the Sahara to the northeast, and a warm rainy season during the northern summer when prevalent winds blow from the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. These warm winds from the Atlantic are laden with moisture, which can be lost rapidly when the air encounters cooler conditions, such as when it is pushed up to higher altitudes by the Futa Jallon Mountains of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Rainfall and prevalent winds during the West African dry and rainy seasons. Encyclopaedia Britanica.

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Three killed in collapse at gold mine in Niger State, Nigeria.

Three people have been killed in a collapse at a gold mine in the Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria, on Thursday, 13 June 2024. The mine is understood to have been an illegal (or at least informal) pit dug by local villagers, which collapsed when the surrounding sediments became soft following the onset of the seasonal rains. Details of the deceased are not known, but informal mines in the area are predominantly worked by women and children.

An informal mine in the  Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria, where a sediment collapse killed three people on Thursday 13 June 2024. AIT Live.

The incident comes a week after another mine collapse in Niger State, in which 20 people were trapped underground in a collapse at a larger pit mine run by African Minerals and Logistics Limited at Galadima Kogo in the Shiroro Local Government Area on Monday 3 June. Seven of the miners were subsequently rescued, but the rest are now feared to have perished. This collapse was also triggered by sediments being softened by rain.

Rescue workers at the scene of a mine collapse at Galadima Kogo in the Shiroro Local Government Area on Monday 3 June 2024. Ministry of Solid Minerals Development.

West Africa has a distinct two season climatic cycle, with a cool dry season during the northern winter when prevalent winds blow from the Sahara to the northeast, and a warm rainy season during the northern summer when prevalent winds blow from the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. These warm winds from the Atlantic are laden with moisture, which can be lost rapidly when the air encounters cooler conditions, such as when it is pushed up to higher altitudes by the Jos Plateau of central Nigeria and Shebshi Mountains on the border with Cameroon.

Rainfall and prevalent winds during the West African dry and rainy seasons. Encyclopaedia Britanica.

Informal artisanal mining is common in many parts of Africa, including Nigeria, which like may other countries has granted concessions to mining companies in areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. However, little of the money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely, often at night or under other unfavourable conditions, which can put the miners at greater risk.

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Rescue workers in Turkey search for mineworkers trapped beneath landslide.

Hundreds of rescue workers have been deployed to a mine in eastern Turkey following a landslide on Tuesday 13 February 2024. The event happened when a spoil heap from the open-pit gold mine collapsed, leading several hundred tonnes of cyanide-laced soil to flow down into the mine site. Nine workers are reported to still be trapped within the mine, five within a shipping container, one inside a truck, and three in another vehicle. Concerns have been raised that cyanide from the mine may enter the Euphrates River, which runs close to the mine in the İliç District of Erzincan Province, then though Syria and Iraq before entering the Persian Gulf. Authorities in Turkey report damming a stream which flows from the mine to the Euphrates, and carrying out ongoing monitoring of the river.

Military personnel near the site of a gold mine hit by a landslide in Erzincan, Turkey. Ugur Yildirim/Getty Images.

The incident happened at the Çöpler Mine, which is operated by Anagold Madencilik, a subsidiary of the American SSR Mining. The mine has previously faced calls for its closure over an apparently poor safety record, following a cyanide leak in 2020, when the Euphrates was affected. On that occasion the mine was fined 16.5 million Turkish lire (US$537 000), but allowed to resume operating in 2022, despite objections from a range of organisations, including the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, which includes the Chamber of Mining Engineers. Operations at the mine have been suspended pending an investigation. Four members of staff, including the pit's field manager, have been arrested as part of the investigation.

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