A golden opportunity: #Mining Burkina Faso

I read an interesting article on Mining Journal Online this morning, about recent growth in mining in Burkina Faso.  Although the country’s mining sectors are young (its Chamber of Mines was only officially inaugurated in September last year), Burkina Faso’s mining industry has grown in leaps and bounds over the past four years.  In fact, the country’s government has put in place development programmes in recent years involving infrastructure investment, to encourage further exploration.

As Mining Jounal reports, “research from Metals Economics Group (MEG) shows that in 2011, exploration budgets rose to a record in all regions globally, with Africa showing the biggest annual percentage gain.  Among the most active countries in Africa was Burkina Faso, which rose from twelfth place in 2009 to third on MEG’s latest list of World Exploration Trends”.

Gold is the main commodity produced in the West African country, with output having increased steadily since the revival of commercial production there nearly five years ago when the Taparko-Bouroum mine poured its first gold.  However, zinc mines are also being developed in the country, with other notable mineral occurrences including manganese, copper, nickel and antimony.

You can access the full Mining Journal article here.

We’ll be covering mining in Burkina Faso at this year’s MENA Mining Show, with a case study from Canadian miner, Riverstone Resources.  Director, President and COO, Dwayne Melrose, will take delegates through the company’s experiences in Burkina Faso, operating the Karma Project in the North of the country.