The contractor working on the Migori section of the Kenya-Tanzania Highway on Friday, August 4 stopped construction works after residents from the county discovered gold from freshly dug soil.
Migori County, which borders Tanzania, has small deposits of gold mined by artisanal miners and a few companies including London-listed gold miner Goldplat which has operations in the Migori Archaean greenstone belt.
According to residents interviewed, the initial discovery happened on August 2 after the contractor dug out sections of the busy highway to commence construction works. The road connects Kenya-Tanzania through the border town of Isebania.
The residents claimed that onlookers were the first to see gold-bearing stones as the earthmovers dug the ground, owing to many residents’ experience in artisanal mining.
The contractor has now been forced to ask local police and county administration to intervene as residents scramble for the gold possibly underneath the long stretch of the road.
The project manager Enos Odum told journalists on Friday that the discovery has been verified after they took samples of the rocks to a government lab.
“In each and every layer we do. We usually take the sample to the lab and after adding mercury to the samples it was discovered that it was indeed gold” he affirmed.
Residents who have thronged the area to make a living of the new gold rush claimed that they fetched over Ksh7,000 for every gram they collected.
Others claimed they have made up to Ksh20,000 since word came out that gold had been discovered in the area.
“I took some of the soil in a 10-litre bucket and washed it. After getting some of the gold I sold it for Ksh7,000. I have come here again to see if I can get more,” Diana Atieno stated.
The residents are now demanding the county government and the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), to temporarily suspend the construction of the roads to allow them to dig out the remaining precious metal.
“This used to be a market and we did not know that there was gold underneath. This discovery is also going to change our lives. We now want to urge the county government not to stop people from harvesting the gold,” Isaiah Odingo stated.
Project engineer James Mageto told journalists that they have submitted samples to the lab to determine the quantity of gold underneath the surface.
“If it is a lot (the gold) then we stop our activities and let the area become a mineral site for the government,” Mageto stated.
