KEY POINTS
- Burkina Faso plans to withdraw mining permits from foreign companies.
- Junta aims to increase domestic gold production.
- Security issues have complicated mining operations across the country.
Burkina Faso plans to revoke mining permits from some foreign companies and boost domestic gold production, junta leader Ibrahim Traore announced Saturday. Traore did not provide a specific list of affected permits.
Traore signals shift towards national control over gold mining
“We know how to mine our gold, and I don’t understand why we’re letting multinationals come and mine it,” Traore said in a radio address marking two years since his coup in 2022. “We are going to withdraw mining permits,” he said, without providing additional details.
Gold is the primary export for Burkina Faso, a West African nation that has faced significant instability in recent years. Public frustration over the government’s inability to address a long-running security crisis, with militant groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State expanding their reach, drove Traore’s rise to power.
Since the coup, Traore’s government has severed ties with its traditional Western allies and aligned more closely with Russia, part of a broader regional trend seen among other military-led governments in West Africa.
Security challenges complicate foreign mining operations
The foreign companies currently operating in Burkina Faso include London-listed Endeavour Mining, Australia-based West African Resources, Russia’s Nordgold, and Canada’s Orezone Gold Corporation. These companies, their operations already hampered by increasing insecurity in the region, are concerned about the potential revocation of mining permits.
Despite assurances from the junta to contain extremist violence, Burkina Faso has experienced a surge in deadly attacks. A U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), reported that 2023 was one of the deadliest years for the country, with over 8,000 deaths.
Burkina Faso’s shift toward more national control of its resources follows a pattern of increasing resource nationalism in Africa, where governments are seeking a larger share of profits from mineral wealth.
