Guillaume Muhoza
- The mining cooperatives are once again authorized to exploit gold sites.
- From now on, with the new texts, each mining cooperative will have to retrocede to the State, 30% of the production obtained before any commercial transaction.
- The government had suspended the existing agreements in July 2021, deeming them “unbalanced”, in order to establish “win-win” agreements.
Only cooperatives are allowed to resume activities, with the extractive industrial corporates having to wait for the outcome of negotiations that are underway to establish new agreements.
Also on this point, the mining cooperatives have signed a profit-sharing contract with the government via the ministry in charge of mines. The ministerial order of 22 June 2022 was inspired by the recommendations of the meeting held in Gitega for mining operators in May 2022.
Burundi Government has suspended the operations of international mining companies working in Burundi, stating that they are not receiving a fair share of the revenues generated by the extraction of its natural wealth.
In a letter sent to these companies at the time, Mines Minister Ibrahim Uwizeye said the decision was taken because of “numerous shortcomings” in the mining code.
Important to know: Following the suspension of mining activities, total gold exports have fallen drastically: exports in the third quarter of 2021 amounted to BIF 47.7 billion compared to BIF 142.4 billion in the same quarter of 2020.
The goldrush can start again.
