The National Corporation of Artisans and Small Mine Operators (CONAPEM) affirmed on Saturday that it intends to organize and train gold miners as well as other players in the sector, in order to prevent gold extract does not finance terrorism.
‘At each conference, we come back to formalization. Without it, we do not have control of gold mining sites, which can contribute to the financing of terrorism,’ indicated the new president of CONAPEM, Potièrozié Didier Dabiré.
Didier Dabiré spoke on Saturday August 3, 2024 in Ouagadougou during the general assembly of CONAPEM, during which he was designated president of the corporation.
The new president is a geologist, trained at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou, manager of environment and sustainable development at Aube Nouvelle University in Ouagadougou, and CEO of a company specializing in the fields of geosciences and the environment.
He says he is immersed in the challenges of the corporation, having been a member of the outgoing office and an actor
in the field.
Mr. Dabiré indicated that Burkina Faso today has more than 800 ‘wild sites’ for gold exploitation, hence the need, according to him, to focus on strengthening the capacities of stakeholders in order to better control the management of these sites.
CONAPEM has existed since 2002, and its current challenge, in addition to training stakeholders and participating in the process of formalizing wild sites, is, according to the president, the mobilization of its members in different mining areas of the country.
‘Most of the difficulties we encountered are related to field work, due to the lack of focal points in gold-bearing areas and the lack of funding,’ emphasized Potièrozié Didier Dabiré.
Made up of 14 members, the new CONAPEM office intends to work to occupy all the mining areas of the country.
To this end, the coordination has set up three technical commissions and designated managers per zone to ensure broad coverage of the territory.
The main objective of CONAPEM is to support operators a
nd artisanal miners in the process of formalization and transition to semi-mechanized mines, so that the State and the population benefit from the fruits of the exploitation of the gold in Burkina Faso.
With this in mind, the structure plans to carry out environmental impact studies of the various semi-mechanized sites, in order to make proposals to the competent authorities.
The coordination also benefits from the support of the World Bank for awareness raising and the implementation of certain projects, confided an official of the association.
During the general assembly, the coordination also appointed a member to represent it on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Source : Burkina Information Agency