'App Will Track Harmful Dust From Bauxite Mining in Guinea', 17 July 2020.

Guinea holds the world’s largest reserves of bauxite. In fact, Guinea’s Ministry of Mines estimates that reserves of bauxite across the country total over 40 billion tons. Since 2013, several major investment agreements have resulted in the arrival of a number of industrial players seeking to capitalize on the vast bauxite reserves located in Guinea. However, the rapid expansion of the bauxite industry has come at a cost to both humans and the environment. In an effort to fill critical on-the-ground data gaps and protect communities that are vulnerable to the impacts of bauxite mining, scientists...are developing a mobile application that will allow community members to locate, record, and track instances of red dust generated by the extraction, transportation, and processing of bauxite.

... According to a report from Human Rights Watch, villagers in Guinea’s most active bauxite mining regions already believe that mining activities are contributing to respiratory illnesses and express concern regarding long-term health impacts from dust exposure.

... The mobile application...will be loaded with satellite images that show dust hot spots to the user...Users would then be able to travel to these regions and take a series of photographs to verify the presence of bauxite dust. Their reports, once uploaded to the app platform, will also be visible to other users of the app. Through this mobile application, communities will have the ability to track and record instances of dust in an effort to hold mining companies accountable for their actions...