Ethiopia became a ‘Wild West’ of illegal mining and unsafe labour
Posted: 16 Nov 2025, 00:45
At a military checkpoint in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, an area reckoning with the aftermath of one of the 21st century’s deadliest wars, heavily armed soldiers ordered a reporter on assignment with The Globe and Mail and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism to pull over. After a brief interrogation, she was told in no uncertain terms to turn back. Only people with written permission from the military controlling the area could go any farther.
During an ensuing negotiation, a dusty pickup truck skidded to a halt. Its driver, a Chinese national, was accompanied by a local interpreter dressed in army fatigues. In the back were vinyl sacks, pickaxes and half a dozen men. The interpreter handed a piece of paper to one of the soldiers, who waved them on.
The truck accelerated away from the checkpoint and toward the sites the reporter had been forbidden from approaching: two vast gold mines. On paper, they are licensed to East Africa Metals (EAM), a Canadian publicly traded company.
For more than a year, these sites, known as Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, were both home to illegal mining operations, according to an investigation by The Globe, in partnership with TBIJ. They were part of a postwar gold rush in Tigray now worth billions, according to records from Ethiopia’s national bank. The industry has ruined the land, stoked deadly violence and could fund the Horn of Africa’s next devastating war.
Canadian companies hold most foreign mining licences in Tigray, where an emerging resource economy must contend with a thriving illicit one.
Reporters spent weeks on the ground in Tigray, speaking to dozens of industry insiders, senior government officials, military and security personnel, local artisanal miners, members of affected communities and experts from around the world.
The investigation included reviewing hundreds of pages of leaked documents and financial statements, combing through public records and analyzing satellite imagery of illegal mines across Tigray.
EAM has said publicly that it is developing legal industrial mines at Mato Bula and Da Tambuk alongside its business partners.
But companies doing business in Tigray face challenges that stem from the area’s internal conflicts. From January, 2024, to June, 2025, gold was being illegally excavated by former soldiers working alongside Chinese miners whose machinery was paid for by unknown foreign investors, according to 16 artisanal miners, seven former security officials, four government sources and five mining investors and industry insiders.
The sites are guarded by military men who control vast smuggling networks, which are in turn fuelling yet more violence across a region already devastated by conflict.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/a ... -canadian/
During an ensuing negotiation, a dusty pickup truck skidded to a halt. Its driver, a Chinese national, was accompanied by a local interpreter dressed in army fatigues. In the back were vinyl sacks, pickaxes and half a dozen men. The interpreter handed a piece of paper to one of the soldiers, who waved them on.
The truck accelerated away from the checkpoint and toward the sites the reporter had been forbidden from approaching: two vast gold mines. On paper, they are licensed to East Africa Metals (EAM), a Canadian publicly traded company.
For more than a year, these sites, known as Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, were both home to illegal mining operations, according to an investigation by The Globe, in partnership with TBIJ. They were part of a postwar gold rush in Tigray now worth billions, according to records from Ethiopia’s national bank. The industry has ruined the land, stoked deadly violence and could fund the Horn of Africa’s next devastating war.
Canadian companies hold most foreign mining licences in Tigray, where an emerging resource economy must contend with a thriving illicit one.
Reporters spent weeks on the ground in Tigray, speaking to dozens of industry insiders, senior government officials, military and security personnel, local artisanal miners, members of affected communities and experts from around the world.
The investigation included reviewing hundreds of pages of leaked documents and financial statements, combing through public records and analyzing satellite imagery of illegal mines across Tigray.
EAM has said publicly that it is developing legal industrial mines at Mato Bula and Da Tambuk alongside its business partners.
But companies doing business in Tigray face challenges that stem from the area’s internal conflicts. From January, 2024, to June, 2025, gold was being illegally excavated by former soldiers working alongside Chinese miners whose machinery was paid for by unknown foreign investors, according to 16 artisanal miners, seven former security officials, four government sources and five mining investors and industry insiders.
The sites are guarded by military men who control vast smuggling networks, which are in turn fuelling yet more violence across a region already devastated by conflict.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/a ... -canadian/