Ouagadougou – Burkina Faso’s junta-led government says it has “requisitioned” 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of gold extracted by a Canadian-owned mine in order to meet emergency needs, vowing to reimburse the firm for the value of the metal.
The impoverished Sahel country is battling a seven-year-old jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and inflicted deep economic damage.
Mining Minister Simon-Pierre Boussim on Tuesday issued a decree announcing that 200 kilos of gold produced by Semafo Burkina Faso from a mine at Mana in western Burkina was being “requisitioned out of public necessity”.
The degree quoted what it said was “Article 16 of the Mining Code” and said the firm “will receive compensation corresponding to the value of the requisitioned gold.” It gave no further details.
The government issued a statement late on Wednesday, saying it wanted to “reassure investors and all of Burkina Faso’s other partners.”
Le gouvernement de transition du Burkina Faso a réquisitionné 200 kg d’or produit par la société minière Semafo pour “nécessité publique”.#Gold #BurkinaFaso pic.twitter.com/lX1nC6A5nT
— Bileri (@LamineBileri) February 16, 2023
TWEET TRANSLATION: The transitional government of Burkina Faso has requisitioned 200 kg of gold produced by the mining company Semafo for “public necessity”. #Gold #BurkinaFaso
“The requisition decision was dictated by an exceptional context of public necessity, which is prompting the state to ask certain mining companies to sell part of their gold production,” the statement by government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo said.
Semafo Burkina Faso is a subsidiary of a Canadian group, Endeavour Mining. AFP reached out to Endeavour Mining but there was no immediate response.
The move is “exceptional and temporary” and will be conducted “in line with gold purchasing conditions on the international market,” the government statement said.
Burkina Faso’s mining code stipulates that “mining or quarrying installations and extracted substances may not be requisitioned nor expropriated by the state except for reasons of public necessity and in exchange for a fair and prior compensation” agreed by both parties or by arbitration.
Gold mining began in Mana in 2008. It now ranks as one of the country’s biggest gold mines, producing 6.04 tons of gold last year, according to official figures.
Endeavour Mining combined with fellow Canadian Semafo in March 2020, creating one of biggest gold miners in West Africa.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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