Sudan Gold Mining Destroys Abu Hamad's Farmland — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Abu Hamad has been transformed by over 700 toxic waste mounds from artisanal gold mining that have replaced orchards and fields, poisoned soil and water, and turned the once-verdant Nile-side town into one of Sudan's largest gold-mining hubs.
- Farmers report crop yields have collapsed dramatically — wheat from 40-60 sacks per acre to 12-18, fava beans from 40-50 sacks per feddan to just 3-4, and orange groves from 10 truckloads to less than half a truckload, with much of the remaining fruit arriving misshapen and thick-peeled.
- Sudan's mining sector generated approximately $1.8bn in revenue in 2024, producing roughly 75 tonnes of gold and accounting for 58% of total export value in SAF-controlled areas, with researcher Suliman Baldo confirming both the SAF and RSF control mining operations during the civil war.
- Public health records show 20% of drinking water samples contained mercury in a 2022 analysis, approximately 1 in 50 children are now born with serious congenital abnormalities, and the local dialysis center serves nearly 100 patients — far beyond its original capacity — due to a spike in kidney failure.
- Northern Boys' School headteacher Mohamed Ahmed Abdelaziz has watched primary classes drop from 75 pupils to 20 as young men abandon education for the mines; university dropout Al-Daw Adam Jibril Mohammed said mining offered 'immediate and direct financial returns' he could no longer afford to wait for.
- Prime Minister Kamil Idris ordered the removal of all gold-processing mills from residential and military areas in July, following 2024 bans on mercury and cyanide in Wadi Halfa and South Kordofan — but the contaminated mounds in Abu Hamad remain exposed and untreated as the rainy season approaches.
- Environmental activist Hashim Abdelazim al-Mahi warns that thiourea, introduced in 2017 as an 'environmentally friendly' alternative to cyanide and mercury, has proven equally destructive, and argues the state must regulate the industry rather than end it, saying 'human health should never be compromised or bargained away.'
Why it matters: Sudan generated $1.8bn from gold in 2024, with the metal now making up 58% of exports in army-controlled territory — yet the unregulated mining fuelling both warring parties is simultaneously destroying the farmland that feeds the country. Wheat yields in Abu Hamad have collapsed from 40-60 sacks per acre to 12-18, with contaminated mounds left untreated and no enforcement mechanism in sight.
Ask SkimNews
.jpg.webp?itok=aKGXiH0c)
