Between the cocoa plantations of western Ivory Coast is a gold mine that is not located on any map. It is barely legal as it does not pay any taxes or is run by an industrial mining company.

The mine is a key part of a money-spinning business led by the deputy commander of West African nation’s Republican guard. He is one the rebel commanders who have integrated into the Ivorian army that has seized control of mines that generates tens of millions of dollars a year.

According to UN investigators, the mine employs nearly 16,000 workers and produces gold worth nearly $97 million a year. The UN monitors estimate that miners at Gamina dig up as much as 11.5 kg (25 lb) of gold a day.

That "would account for 13.8 per cent of the country's annual official (gold) production," the monitors wrote in their latest report published last month. Using a conservative gold price of $1,210 per ounce, they estimated the value of Gamina’s annual output at $96.8 million.

Workers searching for gold at the gold mine. ─ Reuters

A gold prospector uses a rope to climb the side of the gold mine.─ Reuters

A worker sits and eats close to a soldier at the gold mine. ─ Reuters

Workers search for gold at the gold mine. ─ Reuters

Gold prospectors gather with their bags of rock and earth.─ Reuters

A prospector searching for fortune In a gold hole. ─ Reuters

Extracting the gold from mud and water. ─ Reuters

Prospectors quarrel as they search for the precious. ─ Reuters

Prospectors search for gold at the gold mine. ─ Reuters

A gold prospector holds a gold nugget between his fingers at a gold mine near the village of Gamina in western Ivory Coast. ─ Reuters