2024-10-11 07:47:00
Burkina, Mali and Niger try to get as much revenue as possible from gold deposits. Pressure is increasing on foreign companies that operate most of the industrial mines in these countries.
What are we talking about in terms of production? THE Burkina Faso it is the fourth largest gold producer in Africa with a reported production of 58 tonnes of gold per year. TO Evilsis a little more: 66 tons of gold declared for the year 2022. The country is a hub for legal and illegal exports. This is also the case with Niger which has a declared annual production of approximately 45 tonnes. In all three countries, informal artisanal gold mines are numerous and gold smuggling is massive.
Pressure on multinationals
These states put pressure on companies that exploit gold deposits. Example in Mali, this week Bamako demands almost $500 million from Canadian miner Barrick Gold for unpaid taxes. This comes ten days after the arrest of several executives of the company operating the largest gold deposit in the country.
In Burkina the withdrawal of operating permits is underway, the head of the ruling junta, Ibrahim Traoré, explained on Sunday, responding to RTB listeners: ” I don’t understand why, when we know how to exploit gold, we let multinationals exploit it. It is in this sense that I said that there are permits that we are withdrawing. And we will do it ourselves ».
Read alsoArrest in Mali of four employees of a Canadian mining company
Raise taxes
Foreign companies, mostly Canadian and British – we are talking about the mining giants – react very rarely. They prefer to play with diplomacy in areas where they are increasingly less welcome. The price of gold has continued to rise, which is why taxes have also been increased several times in recent years. This could push businesses to leave. “ On the one hand, the gold sector is a huge potential source of public money, but on the other hand, if it goes too far into it, it will disgust businesses. HA unless the Russians and Chinese can gain the upper hand, but if they don’t, they will really lose », explains Marc Raffinot, professor at the Paris-Dauphine University.
Structuring of the sector
Burkina Faso appears to be one step ahead in structuring its gold sector. There was the resumption of the Société de Participation Minière at the end of July after years of lethargy, the revision of the mining code and the desire to valorise the gold on site with the refinery.
An audit of mining contracts and renegotiations with foreign companies is underway in Mali. Niger’s CNSP also created a national gold mining company in September. Subdued nationalizations of the sector, piece by piece.
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