Family quest for adventure leads to goldmining in Mali

Fast approaching her 30th birthday, Moira Ross was stuck in a rut.

The Musselburgh woman was working three jobs just to make ends meet and was fed up with the daily grind.

Seeking a new start, she successfully applied for a medical secretary position in a Saudi Arabian military hospital and so began an incredible 30-year adventure that shows no signs of stopping.

It was there she met her husband, eccentric Frenchman Claude Nicolay, whose wild ideas have led Moira to Mali, where she and her family launched an ambitious, some would say crazy, plan to open a gold mining business, despite having no experience.

While such an undertaking was never going to go smoothly, neither did the family expect to deal with civil war, rogue miners, sacrificial slaughters, financial difficulties and one of their sons almost dying.

Moira, who still has relatives in Scotland, explained: “When I met Claude he was master upholsterer for the royal family in Saudi Arabia. But when our sons, Craig and Pierre, got older we decided to move to France for their education. Claude started a business importing Chinese tractors, but French regulations on the engines were so strict we had to close down.”

In debt, Claude sold several properties and decided Mali’s gold mine opportunities could get the family back on its feet. Financially backed by Saudi friends, Claude set off with Moira, Craig and Pierre.

“When we first went to the village close to the site, the local kids were scared of me because I’m so pale skinned,” she smiled. “Their parents had frightened them with stories of ghosts to make them behave.”

As the Nicolays settled into the primitive surroundings of Tofola in south Mali, they tried to gain the locals’ trust, providing them with medical supplies and attempting to work with them in the search for gold.

A chance meeting with Scottish filmmaker Robbie Fraser meant the family’s adventure was captured on film and the resultant documentary, Family Goldmine, is on TV tonight.

It not only shows the family dealing with local miners, but the threat of civil war edging closer to their doorstep and 21-year-old son Pierre almost dying from malaria.

“Claude and Craig both had malaria once, but Pierre had it five times,” Moira continued. “It was touch and go with him one time, we almost lost him.”

The documentary leaves the story on a cliffhanger, with finances drying up before the research has finished and Claude’s dreams of running an eco-mine becoming a nightmare, but Moira told The Sunday Post she’s positive they will eventually strike gold and insists she will never change her adventure-seeking husband.

“I’m always willing to go on whatever adventure he has planned. He’s 65 this year but there’s no chance of him slowing down. He always has to be doing something and that’s one of the reasons I love him.

“I’ll be 60 soon but I still feel so young and I think it’s because of Claude’s crazy ideas!”

Family Goldmine is on BBC2 Scotland tonight at 9.50pm.