The Burkina Mining Cooperative (Coopérative des Exploitants miniers du Burkina – COEXAMINE Burkina), located in the South-West region, has received 26.339 million FCFA from the revolving fund supporting the mining artisanal sector. The symbolic handover of the cheque took place on Thursday 25 January 2024 during the signing of the protocol for the financing of the revolving fund to support the mining artisanal sector between PlanetGOLD Burkina and Coris Bank International.
Oumarou Ganemtoré, Vice-President of the Board of Directors of COEXAMINE Burkina, the beneficiary of this funding, expressed his satisfaction. He pointed out that the PlanetGold project meets a pressing need of artisanal miners that has existed for several years. “I am satisfied because for more than 5 years, we have been lobbying the banks for loans to benefit artisanal miners,” he said. The Vice-Chairman of COEXAMINE pledged to work towards implementing his commitment to the PlanetGold project so that other cooperatives can benefit from it. “This is a first for us, the artisanal miners. We are going to work to honour the loans so that other artisanal miners can benefit from this fund”, he says.
Regarding the use of the 26.339 million FCFA, the COEXAMINE Vice-Chairman said that the fund would enable the cooperative to acquire modern machinery to boost production and reduce the use of mercury, which is widely used in the artisanal mining and extraction chain. “The resources (26.339 million FCFA) are in support, because we already have a conventional site, but we don’t have enough working equipment. We have been advised to stop using mercury. We need modern machinery, which we are going to acquire with this fund”, he argued.
Tiba Kassamse OUEDRAOGO
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