NGOZI October 25th (ABP) – The Burundi Prime Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca is demanding that all gold produced by cooperatives be declared and sold to the BRB, as required by Burundian law. That is one of the conclusions of the meeting of the Prime Minister during a meeting Monday, October 24 in Ngozi with the gold cooperatives.
In the report of the Minister of Energy and Mines Ibrahim Uwizeye, of the 33675.97g of gold declared by the cooperatives since the resumption of exploitation by the cooperatives in July 2022, more than 8161.21g have not reached to the BRB, the only institution authorized to buy gold mined on Burundian soil.
The report made the Prime Minister require artisanal gold mining cooperatives to carry out a census of cooperatives that declared and did not sell their production to the BRB.
Thus, the ad hoc census showed that 5947.79 g of gold remained in the pockets of gold miners without being sent to the BRB. The Prime Minister ordered these cooperatives to send all this quantity of gold to the BRB no later than Wednesday, October 26, 2022.
In addition to the large quantities that do not reach the Central Bank, there are cooperatives that do not declare their production or declare small quantities. For example, out of 124 gold mining sites that have signed contracts with the Burundian Office of Mines (OBM), 30 have so far declared less than 5g of gold as production. In Cibitoke, on the other hand, it is the president of the “Ibikorwa” cooperative of Nyamakarabo-Ruce in the commune of Mugina who vanished with 112.6 g of gold. The Prime Minister also asked the cooperatives of gold miners to take into account the human dimension in their deposits. That is a nod to the leaders of cooperatives who exploit workers in inhuman conditions.
Prime Minister Ndirakobuca asked the cooperatives to change their behavior and to see gold as not an individual but a collective treasure and to respect the regulations without making contours or exposing themselves to illegal maneuvers punishable by law.
He also insisted that the administration, the national intelligence service and the national police contribute effectively to the fight against fraud in the mining sector. The meeting was attended by executives from the Presidency of the Republic, provincial governors, communal administrators of localities who carry out the activity of gold collection.
The meeting was also attended by regional and provincial police commissioners and heads of provincial intelligence services.