As a prelude to the 5th edition of the West African Mining Week (SAMAO), Ouagadougou hosted a pre-SAMAO training and experience-sharing workshop on the potential and development issues of the development minerals sector. Held from 26 to 27 September 2023, it was attended by numerous international institutions, delegations and experts in the field of development minerals.
This pre-event at SAMAO is co-organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Burkina Faso, the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme funded by the European Commission and implemented by the UNDP, and the Burkina Faso Ministry of Mines.
Discussion of the issue of organising, structuring and promoting quarry products and by-products
This Pre-SAMAO is intended to be a framework for exchanging and sharing experience in the target countries in terms of formalising mining artisanal and small-scale gold mining (exploitation minière artisanale et à petite échelle de l’or – EMAPE) and added value, as well as environmental, health and safety issues. It is intended as a framework for training the trainers (formation des formateurs – FoF) on the environment, health and safety in EMAPE, as well as in the manufacture of stabilised earth bricks: a zero waste approach to the size of laterite bricks. This pre-SAMAO event will provide a forum for discussion on the organisation, structuring and promotion of quarry products and by-products. Presiding over the opening ceremony, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Mines, Simon Pierre Boussim, said that in addition to sharing experiences, this workshop was an ideal framework for strengthening South-South cooperation in favour of the target countries of the ACP-EU Minerals for Development Programme, namely Burkina Faso, Congo, Tanzania, Cameroon, Guinea and Mauritania. Simon Pierre Boussim reminded participants that this workshop was part of the Project to Enhance and Strengthen Artisanal Exploitation of Development Minerals (Projet de Valorisation et de Renforcement de l’Exploitation Artisanale des Minéraux du développement – PVREAMD), financed by phase 2 of the ACP-EU programme. He invited the participants to exchange views objectively on good environmental practices in the development minerals sector, and to propose measures to be taken to implement the proposed solutions so that, at the end of the 48 hours of discussions, the results could lead to a better perception of the sub-sector by the general public.
UNDP in favour of supporting the mining sector
This first Pre-SAMAO event was attended by delegations from the programme’s beneficiary countries, including Abdelkerim Mahamat Abdelkerim, Chad’s Minister of Mines and Geology, Alfredo TEIXEIRA, UNDP Resident Representative in Burkina Faso, and Marc Duponcel, representative of the European Union Ambassador to Burkina Faso.
The UNDP Burkina Faso Resident Representative, Alfredo TEIXEIRA, said that the mining sector deserved a great deal of attention and support if Burkina Faso and the African continent were to realise their full potential.
In the words of the UNDP Burkina Faso Resident Representative, artisanal mining generates more jobs than industrial mining. “More than 8,000 direct jobs are generated by small-scale artisanal mining, which is 8 times the number of jobs generated by formal industrial mining,” he said.
He pointed out that this Pre-SAMAO workshop is part of phase 2 of the ACP-EU Minerals for Development programme, which is being implemented throughout Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and is helping to increase employment and incomes for small-scale mining and processing companies.
Tiba Kassamse OUEDRAOGO
#Mines_Actu_Burkina
