KAYANZA July 7th (ABP) – A period of ten days is granted to the Burundi Mining Authority (OBM) to make any cooperative extracting gold sign a commitment deed and no cooperative is entitled to more of one mining site throughout the national territory. That recommendation is part of the clauses from the meeting held on Thursday, July 6, 2023, at the headquarters of Kayanza province (north) by the Prime Minister of Burundi, Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca, for all stakeholders in the mining sector.
At the end of that meeting held in camera, Prime Minister Ndirakobuca ordered the OBM to draw up a commitment deed which will be signed by the representative of the cooperative. “The latter should mention daily production,” he added. “The signatory of the commitment deed and the curator of the production must be people who have not been accused by the courts of having committed the fraud of the minerals”, he underlined, specifying that this is the first mission of the OBM.
In addition, the person who will have put his signature to the commitment deed will be obliged to show the telephone numbers and national identity cards of those who will transport the gold production to the BRB.
Thus, a copy of the act of commitment will be sent to the provincial governor and the latter will have to appoint one of his advisers who will be responsible for closely monitoring the mining cooperatives.
The Prime Minister of Burundi also indicated that no cooperative working in a mining site located in one or the other province is entitled to more than one mining site and this, throughout the national territory. He also instructed the OBM to set up a WhatsApp group to regularly monitor the cooperatives and their members and remedy any problems faced by the mining cooperatives.
Mr. Ndirakobuca asked that the mining cooperatives that have fulfilled all those conditions resume their activities from July 17. He warned the OBM operations officers who will fail in their mission that they will pay the price.