Mine locations and footprints in sub Saharan Africa

These data we devised and used in the following papers

Ahmed, A.I., Massam, M.R., Bryant, R.G. and Edwards, D.P., 2025. How much deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa has been caused by mining?. Biological Conservation, 304, p.111040. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2025.111040

Ahmed, A.I., Bryant, R.G. and Edwards, D.P., 2021. Where are mines located in sub Saharan Africa and how have they expanded overtime?. Land Degradation & Development, 32(1), pp.112-122. 10.1002/ldr.3706

The mine database and mine footprint data (an *xlxs file and a zipped *shp file) include a combination of mine data for sub-saharan africa (e.g. location, commodity, mine operator, and active dates) from sources outlined in Ahmed et al., (2021), as well from a process of manual digitising and mapping of mine footprints using high resolution remote sensing data. The methods used to generate this initial suite of information are outlined in Ahmed et al., (2021). A sub-set of these mine locations were used in Ahmed et al. (2025) to study the impacts of these mine operations on deforestation.