Lompoul (Senegal) (AFP) – Like something from the science fiction film “Dune”, the “world’s biggest mining dredger” has been swallowing acre after acre of the fertile coastal strip where most of Senegal’s vegetables are grown.

The jagged 23-kilometre-long (14-mile) scar the gigantic rig has left mining for zircon – which is used in ceramics and the building industry – is so big it is visible from space.

Amid a deafening din, the massive machine sucks up thousands of tonnes of mineral sands an hour, moving forward on an artificial lake created with water pumped from deep underground.

It is now tearing through the dunes of Lompoul – one of the smallest and most beautiful deserts in the world – a tourist hotspot by the endless beaches of Senegal’s Atlantic coast.

Thousands of farmers and their families have been displaced over the past decade to make way for the colossal floating factory run by the French mining group Eramet.

But locals accuse it of destroying this rich but delicate ecosystem on the western edge of Africa’s semi-arid Sahel region.

The project has brought “despair and disillusion”, said Gora Gaye, the mayor of Diokoul Diawrigne district which takes in Lompoul.

For years critics of the mine said villagers’ protests at losing the land were ignored, with complaints about “derisory” compensation smothered by the authorities.

That has now changed, with tourist operators uniting with farmers and local leaders to demand a pause in the mining.

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has also spoken out on extractive mining practices, saying some “local populations do not benefit”. He doubled down last week, demanding more transparency and oversight of “social and environmental impacts”.

…