‘It’s never enough’: the Senegal goldminers surviving from one nugget to the next

Artisanal gold mining is seen as a route out of poverty for the thousands of west Africans who flock to Senegal Photograph: Andy Hall/The Observer

On a stopover in Mali on his way to Libya, Bakary Jammeh abandoned plans to board a boat to Italy. He had a brother there, but Jammeh became convinced he should put their reunion on hold and turn back in search of gold.

Jammeh had met a Senegalese man with a pocket full of cash and 15 grams of gold. The man was from Kédougou in southeastern Senegal, where villages with long traditions of panning for gold are quietly transforming into sprawling mining towns.