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Africa Mining Watch trains journalists to spot illegal mines from space

Africa Mining Watch trains journalists to spot illegal mines from space

New Capabilities

A Pulitzer Center, Code for Africa and Earth Genome tool moves from training to first field verifications, as Congo suspends its artisanal mining chief

October 21st, 2026: Congo suspends artisanal mining agency head

Overview

Updated Nov 1

On April 22, about 25 African journalists joined an online mapathon to learn how a satellite model flags bare ground at open-pit mines. One of them, Nigerian editor Abdullah Tijani, fed the tool photos from his reporting on terrorist-run illegal mines and verified 51 sites it flagged.

The public site now lists 123,541 detections across 13 West African and Congo Basin countries, based on imagery through June 2026; 54% sit in 20 districts and 1 in 13 falls on protected land. The partners call the data a rough cut that cannot separate licensed mines from illegal ones. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the mines minister suspended the head of the state artisanal mining agency on October 21, saying he failed to stop illegal digging on licensed concessions in Lualaba and Haut-Katanga.

Why it matters

Reporters covering Congo Basin mining can now see new pits the week they appear, not months later when communities finally complain.

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Key Indicators

25
Journalists trained
African reporters joined the Earth Day mapathon, most of them already covering mining.
123,541
Mining detections
Cells of mined-looking ground flagged across 13 countries from imagery through June 2026.
51
Sites verified by one reporter
Nigerian editor Abdullah Tijani verified 51 sites that Earth Index flagged using photos from his reporting.
1 in 13
Detections on protected land
Share of detections inside protected areas, including forest reserves and a World Heritage site.

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Organizations Involved

Pulitzer Center
Pulitzer Center
Journalism nonprofit
Co-founder and journalist trainer for Africa Mining Watch

A Washington-based nonprofit that funds and trains journalists on under-covered international stories.
Code for Africa
Code for Africa
Civic technology network
Lead data and product partner

The continent's largest network of civic-tech and data-journalism teams, with labs in more than 20 African countries.
Earth Genome
Earth Genome
Environmental data nonprofit
Model and infrastructure builder

A nonprofit that builds machine-learning pipelines on satellite imagery for environmental monitoring.

Timeline

October 2022 October 2026

7 events Latest: October 21st, 2026 · 3 weeks ago
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. Congo suspends artisanal mining agency head

    Latest Government

    Mines minister Louis Kabamba Watum suspended SAEMAPE director general Jean-Paul Kadiobo Kapongo over illegal artisanal mining on concessions in Lualaba and Haut-Katanga.

  2. Public site carries first 13-country sweep

    Milestone

    africaminingwatch.org lists 123,541 mining detections across 13 West African and Congo Basin countries from imagery to June 2026, with an open data download. The site does not say when it went live.

  3. Report documents first reporter verifications

    Use case

    LatAm Journalism Review details how Abdullah Tijani verified 51 sites flagged by Earth Index and how Jonas Kiriko is planning an investigation in the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor.

  4. Earth Day mapathon trains 25 African journalists

    Training

    Reporters from across the continent join an online mapathon. Earth Genome staff walk them through reading satellite tiles and flagging suspected mines.

  5. Africa Mining Watch partnership announced

    Announcement

    Code for Africa publishes the partnership announcement with the Pulitzer Center and Earth Genome on Medium.

  6. Amazon platform moves to quarterly updates

    Capability

    Amazon Mining Watch begins near-real-time quarterly detection of new gold-mining fronts, proving the model can run at production cadence.

  7. Amazon Mining Watch launches

    Precedent

    Earth Genome, Amazon Conservation and the Pulitzer Center release the first AI-driven public map of gold-mining deforestation across all nine Amazonian countries.

Scenarios

2

First published investigation cites Africa Mining Watch data

Likely Resolves by Apr 22, 2027

Discussed by: Pulitzer Center's Rainforest Investigations Network and Nieman Lab

Abdullah Tijani has used the tool to verify 51 sites for a story on terrorist-run illegal mines in Nigeria, and Jonas Kiriko is developing a report on the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor. A published investigation that names Africa Mining Watch as a data source would resolve this.

3

An African government formally pushes back on the tool

Possible Resolves by Apr 22, 2027

Discussed by: Mining-sector analysts and press-freedom groups familiar with extractives reporting

A government or large miner challenges the platform. Possible forms include a defamation suit against a reporter who uses the data, a takedown demand to the host, or denied accreditation for partner journalists. Extractives reporting is among the most legally risky beats on the continent, and the Amazon project drew political heat from miners and local officials.

4

Platform expands beyond gold to other minerals or to Southeast Asia

Possible Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Earth Genome project notes and Pulitzer Center's tri-region Rainforest Investigations Network

The partners broaden the detection model beyond gold-style open pits, or extend the same approach to the third rainforest region Pulitzer already covers. The mining-detector code is open-source and the Pulitzer Center already runs reporters in Southeast Asia, so the marginal cost of a new region is mostly model training data.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

October 2022

Amazon Mining Watch launch (2022)

Earth Genome, Amazon Conservation and the Pulitzer Center's Rainforest Investigations Network released the first AI-driven public map of gold-mining deforestation across all nine Amazonian countries. The site used a convolutional neural network on Sentinel-2 imagery to flag suspected pits at ten-meter resolution.

Then

Within two years, reporters used the data to publish investigations in Brazil, Spain, Venezuela and the United States, several focused on mining inside Indigenous reserves.

Now

The platform moved to quarterly updates in 2025 and became a standard reference for Amazon environmental coverage, including by Mongabay and MAAP.

Why this matters now

Africa Mining Watch is a direct port of this project with the same lead engineering team. The Amazon timeline is the best guide to what the Africa version is likely to produce and when.

February 2014

Global Forest Watch launch (2014)

The World Resources Institute launched Global Forest Watch with Google, the University of Maryland and about 40 other partners. It put near-real-time deforestation alerts on a public web map, built on Landsat imagery and the Hansen forest-loss dataset.

Then

Within a year, governments in Indonesia and Peru and NGOs in the Congo Basin used the alerts to direct enforcement and reporting. Newsrooms cited the data in dozens of investigations.

Now

Global Forest Watch became permanent reference infrastructure for environmental reporting and accountability, with more than three million users by 2024.

Why this matters now

It is the closest analog for what Africa Mining Watch is trying to be: a public, satellite-driven dataset that both watchdogs and reporters can plug into. Adoption was rapid once the data was free and clickable.

2014 onward

Bellingcat and the rise of open-source satellite reporting (2014 onward)

Eliot Higgins founded Bellingcat in 2014. The team used commercial satellite imagery and social-media geolocation to reconstruct the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and later mapped Russian forces in eastern Ukraine and Syria.

Then

Bellingcat investigations were cited by the Dutch Safety Board and the Joint Investigation Team that indicted suspects in the MH17 case.

Now

Open-source intelligence using satellite data became a standard method in investigative journalism, with units at the New York Times, BBC and Reuters.

Why this matters now

Africa Mining Watch tries to do for environmental reporters what Bellingcat did for conflict reporters: turn satellite imagery from a specialist resource into an everyday newsroom tool.

Sources

(9)
+3
Human Progress Nieman Journalism Lab Pulitzer Center Code for Africa (Medium) Africa Mining Watch Amazon Conservation Association Mongabay LatAm Journalism Review CNBC Africa