- 30.5 tonnes of fine gold from artisanal, industrial and semi-industrial miners between 1986 and 2005
- Present throughout the gold mining chain: from extraction to sale
- Its liquidation has disrupted the artisanal sector
- He took part in mining promotion events around the world
The Artisanal Miners’ Day (Journée de l’artisan minier – JAM 2023), held in Gaoua on 21 and 22 July 2023, was a springboard for expression for many actors in the mining sector. At the event, Yacouba Barry, a former minister and former Managing Director of the Burkinabe Comptoir of Precious Metals (Comptoir burkinabé des Métaux précieux – CBMP), spoke about the comptoir’s contribution to the mining sector. He spoke about the history, organisation, achievements and limitations of the CBMP.
From this communication, it emerges that the CBMP has invested itself in the monitoring and good management of the mining sector. It has worked to make its presence effective throughout the gold panning chain, from extraction to sale. In terms of practical organisation, Yacouba Barry points out that the CBMP has separated the various activities involved in collecting gold. “On the one hand there is the digging area, on the other the ore processing area and finally the gold sales area”, he described. In addition to mining activities on the mining sites, the CBMP has provided technical support and advice to artisanal miners, to avoid accidents, landslides and conflicts between operators as far as possible, not forgetting the environmental and health aspects.
According to the former CEO, in terms of sales, the CBMP has worked to obtain the best conditions for selling minerals abroad, in order to sell them at an acceptable price for the benefit of all players in the sector. To maximise the sale of mining products, the CBMP has even developed many initiatives. These include negotiations involving competition between major refiners to obtain the best refining costs.
Yacouba Barry explains that the CBMP chose “serious” customers known on the world gold market, who were able to pay for and accept its products (gold and silver) at world cost and according to their own schedule. In the same vein, the CBMP signed an agreement with each of its partners to regulate their relationship in the sale of its gold. In Yacouba Barry’s words, the CBMP has also surrounded itself with the best tools for external sales, including the use of a broker (Pechiney Trading France), a specialist in the field, to provide it with information and developments in the precious metals market, enabling it to sell at the best times.
According to the former CEO, the CBMP collected and sold an average of 01 tonnes of gold per year, i.e. a total of more than 15.5 tonnes of fine gold from artisanal miners, and almost 15 tonnes of fine gold from industrial and semi-industrial miners from SOREMIB and CEMOB between 1986 and 2005. The speaker felt that the CBMP had played an active role in promoting mining in Burkina Faso through its presence at numerous mining promotion events around the world, and that it still had a reason to exist. He noted that its liquidation had disrupted the artisanal sector.
Tiba Kassamse OUEDRAOGO
Mines Actu Burkina
Encadré
Yacouba Barry, Géomètre-expert agréé
Yacouba Barry, Certified Surveyor, Certified Real Estate Expert, is a former CEO of CBMP. He was head of the Topo section at African Works Company (Société Africaine des Travaux – SATRAV), for the restructuring of the Cissin district of Ouagadougou, and head of the Topo brigade at the Topography and Cadastre Department. He has demarcated many plots of land for the Land Registry Department. Yacouba Barry teaches surveying at the C.F.P.E. and the ISN/IDR at the University of Ouagadougou.
