Reports as recent as 2017 reported 92% prevalence of blood lead poisoning in children from some villages in the Nigerian state of Zamfara.
Source: Tosin Abdulsalam, environmental researcher (28 July 2020)
Several studies, including the one cited by the researcher, support the claim that lead levels were dangerously high in Zamfara due to unsafe gold mining.
The governor of Kaduna state in Nigeria, Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, told potential investors that the state has “all the data” to prove that it has more gold than South Africa. Where is it? Africa Check went looking.
The South African government’s mineral resources department claims there has been a “42% reduction in occupational diseases in the mining sector. ” Is this true? And what timeframe are they referring to?
South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, celebrated his government’s achievements in his sixth State of the Nation address. How did he fare?
Estimates carried in the media of the cost to the South African economy of strikes vary widely. This alone suggests they should be taken with a big pinch of salt. Is it possible to say how much strikes cost? Africa Check investigates the claims.
The claim by the SA minerals ministry last week that exploration due to take place in the Karoo Basin will not involve hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” is misleading, and is contradicted in the ministry’s own report.