On 31 January 2024, Bissa Gold announced a plan to reduce its workforce. Bissa Gold, which is operated by the Russian company Nordgold, wants to let go some of its staff for economic reasons.
The announcement was made on 31 January 2024 by the Director of Human Resources in a memo sent to workers.
In his memo, he stated that it was because of “economic and structural difficulties that have persisted since 2022 and in order to maintain operations” that Bissa Gold was considering implementing a staff reduction plan.
Have the workers been involved in this decision?
According to the Director of Human Resources, a meeting was held with workers’ representatives. During this meeting, it was “unanimously agreed that 2 main actions were urgently required to minimise the effects of such a project”.
One of the actions would be to give employees who so wish the opportunity to negotiate voluntary redundancy before any redundancy scheme. The negotiation period is set between 31 January and 3 February 2024.
The second action is to negotiate with employees whose retirement dates are scheduled for 2024 and 2025, the termination of part of their employment contract.
Prior to this decision, a Nordgold delegation was received by the Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries, Yacouba Zabré Gouba, on Tuesday 30 January 2024. According to a press release issued by the communication department of the Ministry of Mines, the delegation was: “Made up of the Country Director, Rasmané Sawadogo, Vasily Chikikov and Andrey Naumov, respectively Legal Director and Director of Community Relations at Bissa Gold”. They explained their difficulties to the Minister. They also gave an update on the progress of the Ronguen and Niou projects.
In addition to this project, Nordgold was granted a mining licence for the Yimiougou site in December 2022. Ore from this site is expected to supply the Bissa Gold plant for a period of 4 years. Unfortunately, convoys and sites belonging to Bissa Gold and its subcontractors have been the target of terrorist attacks resulting in loss of life. The most recent of these cost the lives of 4 people in December 2023. It was against this backdrop that the plan to reduce its workforce was announced.
Bissa Gold is a mining company operated by the Russian group Nordgold. The company obtained its operating licence in June 2011 for an initial period of 16 years. It began production on 13 January 2013. Bissa Gold is situated between the communes of Sabcé, Guibaré and Mané, in the Centre-Nord region.
For the past 2 years, production has been on a rollercoaster ride. In 2020, it produced 5.84 tonnes of gold, which came to 183.71 billion FCFA. In 2021, production increased to 7.215 tonnes of gold sold for 221.417 billion FCFA. In 2022, it produced 6.519 tonnes of gold worth 235 billion FCFA. Production in 2023 is 6.190 tonnes sold at 234.445 billion FCFA. In 2020, it employed 701 people, 673 of whom were Burkina Faso nationals and 28 foreign nationals, according to the EITI 2021 report.
Elie KABORE
#Mines_Actu_Burkina
