Like sprawling monsters, the machines connected by thick pipes floating on an artificial basin advance gently on the dune. The Grande Côte Opérations (GCO) mobile mine is closing in on its goal: the Lompoul desert, 200 kilometers north of Dakar. A very touristic site, halfway between the Senegalese capital and Saint-Louis, which is full of minerals, especially zircon.
Like ilmenite and rutile, this ore used in jewelry, the nuclear industry and the automotive sector is extracted from sands. Owned 90% by the French group Eramet and 10% by the State of Senegal, GCO is now the world’s fourth largest producer. The company, which produced more than 750,000 tonnes of mineral sand concentrate in 2022, including 15% zircon, is thinking big. “Our production will increase between 2024 and 2027, anticipates Guillaume Kurek, its general manager, because the first part of the Lompoul desert has a high ore content and the dunes are high. »
The project of more than 800 million euros of investment is ambitious: the mining area which moves thirty meters per day extends over more than a kilometer and progresses on the coastal dune between the strip of filaos, trees planted to fix the dunes, and the market gardening area. Upstream, the machines clear the land, where there are trees, fields, roads or homes that are razed or moved. Follows the dredge floating on an artificial basin which pumps the sand, sent by large pipes to the imposing unit of concentration – also floating – which separates the mineralized sand from the ordinary sand rejected at the back of the unit. Only 2% of the 150,000 tons of sand processed each day are retained.
At the back, machines rehabilitate the land, trying to respect a topography similar to the landscape that has been razed. But the arrival of the mobile mine in the Lompoul desert worries the populations, who fear that the industrial complex will damage the environment and harm tourism.
The crazy plan to build a “desert oasis”
“It’s a waste of time to resist the arrival of the mine,” laments Justin Sarr, receptionist at the Desert Camp, a field dotted with white tents in the hollow of an orange sand dune, in the middle of eucalyptus trees, where he has been working for five years. The closure of the camp is scheduled for October 2023. “Am I going to find a job where I will have the same passion as in the desert?” asks the young man.
Even if GCO promised counterparties, the same question haunts the inhabitants of the village of Lompoul, from where the excursions in the desert leave. Pape Yerim Sow sells local crafts and plays the djembe in the evening around the fire in the camps. “All my activities depend on tourists. If there is a mine, I lose everything, ”protests the father of the family. “To us, the indirectly impacted, GCO has offered nothing because they will only compensate those who occupy the desert,” criticizes Pape Yerim Sow, who is thinking of moving to another tourist area like Saint-Louis or the Sine Saloum delta. .
To respond to these impacts, GCO embarked on the crazy project of building a “desert oasis” from scratch, on land where the dredge had already passed, ten kilometers from the current tourist site. The construction site, still in progress, began in July 2022 and must be completed before the camps close to avoid the interruption of tourism. “We reconstructed the original dune, planted a palm grove on eight hectares, with a 2,000 m2 body of water in the middle. We are also going to develop the coast which is not far away,” explains Samba Fall, project manager for GCO.
Because the objective is to encourage tourists to stay more than one night on the site. “This oasis will allow us to respond to indirect jobs, which are not included in the compulsory compensation process, and therefore to maintain the activity of small restaurants, sports activities, camel rides, artistic services or sales. of craftsmanship,” Mr. Kurek hopes.
The concern of tourism stakeholders
These infrastructures built by the mining company for a total budget of 5 million euros will then be transferred to Sapco, a public company for the development and promotion of the coasts and tourist areas in Senegal, which will be responsible for finding the operators. “We did a first round with the owners of the current lodges because they already know the tourist routes and are connected with the tour operators,” explains Mr. Kurek.
But tourism stakeholders still have concerns about how to allocate the management of the place. “At the moment, there is not much built,” said Abdou Ba, manager of the Desert Camp, after visiting the GCO oasis construction site. “It’s luxurious, there will be a swimming pool, but that’s not what we want. We would like to receive compensation to launch our own project in another area,” continues the tourism professional. Negotiations are still underway to assess the amount of compensation distributed to tourism businesses.
A few meters from the edge of the basin where the gigantic concentration factory turns, there are always small white houses in front of which colored laundry is drying. These inhabitants did not follow the relocation of the village of Thiokhmat, which is on the way from the mine to the Lompoul desert.
“Sometimes the negotiations take time, so we end up with hamlets around the dredge, which was not planned,” admits Ousmane Goudiaby, head of the community relations department at GCO, as the mine has never been so close to homes. Since the beginning of the operation, three villages and 2,000 people have been moved to “modern villages”. But “mines often have a concern with a negative view of their environmental impact,” admits Goudiaby.
Another issue: access to land
Some activists then mobilized to denounce the project, in particular by pointing the finger at the heavy water consumption of the mining industry. “The tracks built in laterite lack maintenance and deposit dust on our crops”, also criticizes Cheikh Fall, from the collective of the Niayes area, the agricultural area where the mine operates. He adds that with the clearing and despite the reforestation, “original plants have disappeared” and “the soils have become impoverished. GCO acknowledges that “the sand has lost its fertile layer” and adds that they are working to “amend the soil with manure and by planting shrubs”, replies Mr. Goudiaby.
The other issue is access to land, while 85 rehabilitated hectares have been returned to the Senegalese state and 1,000 hectares should be returned over the next five years according to Director General Mr. Kurek. “But nothing comes back to the people,” worries Serigne Maar Sow, president of the youth alliance for the development of Lompoul village, who assures that farmers and breeders have lost their land.
For its part, GCO promotes its social and environmental policy. “The relocation and community part represents 14% of our current expenses, which is the third largest expense item after energy and payroll,” reveals Mr. Kurek. If it recognizes that the impact on its environment is certain, GCO highlights in return its role in the economy of the region and Senegal.
“We have created more than 2,000 local jobs and we are the sixth largest contributor to the state budget in terms of mining company, in addition to bringing in foreign currency, boasts Mr. Kurek, boss of the company which makes 300 million euros in turnover. Through jobs, purchases and taxes, the benefits correspond to more than 120 million euros for Senegal. »