In Burkina Faso, the government of Ibrahim Traoré is hard at work to resolve a major problem in gold exploitation.
Indeed, Minister Roger Baro’s latest proposal to the environment portfolio is an exact illustration of this.
Concretely, while he spoke with the mining artisans of Faso, he made them an important proposal: that of reforming gold panning.
What the minister wants is for individual gold panning to be raised to another level to avoid the losses it often causes and limit its impact on the environment.
Roger Baro therefore suggested that they form a cooperative to transform individual gold panning into semi-mechanized mines, much more productive and with a higher yield.
His first words illustrate this: “We need to raise the level so that gold panning sites are transformed into small, semi-mechanized mines.”
His proposal does not stop there, he sees these new mines as “defined spaces where minors can work according to existing regulations”.
Why this proposal from Ibrahim Traoré’s government on the exploitation of gold in Burkina Faso?
If Minister Baro’s primary objective is environmental protection, this change will bring other benefits.
It is therefore clear that he firstly wants to minimize the impact of the actions of artisanal miners on the environment. And for good reason, by regrouping, they will no longer be able to attack one area or another individually, as they wish.
However, the interest of such a position for Ibrahim Traoré’s government does not stop there.
Taken from a broader perspective, the creation of semi-automated mines will solve other difficulties. Among them, the losses caused by artisanal gold panning using rudimentary tools will be corrected.
In doing so, national output will truly be increased. Then effective control will be established over a previously lawless sector.
Furthermore, to implement this reform, Minister Baro does not leave the artisans in the shadows. And for good reason, he entrusts them to the National Society of Precious Substances (SONASP) which will have the role of supervising them in their maneuver.
