The hearing in the “charbon fin” (“fine coal”) case resumed this Friday 6 October 2023 at the Tribunal de Grande Instance Ouaga I. Yesterday, 5 October 2023, when the hearing was suspended, the court demanded that the solid bodies be brought to the stand.
At the opening of the hearing on 6 October 2023, the solid bodies were presented to the stand in 2 sealed canteens.
At 10.47am, the president of the court asked the experts whether it was possible to determine precisely the technical and material elements contained in the canteens used to process the fine coal? No, replied the experts.
“Do all the mines have the same process for treating fine coal?” asked a lawyer from the Essakane mine. “No,” they replied.
“In the process of treating the fine coal at Essakane, can we end up with these elements in the canteens?” “Yes,” say the experts.
It was 11.17am when the experts said that IAMGOLD Essakane SA had used fine coal processing elements that did not comply with standard norms.
At 11.42am, they proposed a method that involved crushing these solid bodies in order to analyse them and finalise the determination of their content.
The prosecutor is firmly opposed to this method because, in his view, it will make certain evidence disappear forever, especially if there is an appeal.
At 11.49am, the president of the court asked the experts “Can we say that there is gold in these canteens?” The 2 canteens were on display in the courtroom. In their response, the experts affirmed that there were elements containing gold in these containers.
The hearing was suspended at 12:30 before resuming at 13:03. When the hearing resumed, the president of the court called in a bailiff to assist the experts and to ascertain the contents of the seals once the canteens had been opened.
When the court was about to open the seals on the canteens, it noticed that the keys were missing. They were not at the prosecutor’s office or the experts’ offices. The presiding judge therefore suspended the hearing. It will resume on Monday 9 October 2023 at 9:00am.
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