Burkina Faso: Mining licenses will be withdrawn from some foreign companies
Burkina Faso’s transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, said that his country plans to withdraw mining licenses from some foreign companies and will move towards producing more gold on its own.
“We know how to extract our own gold, and I don’t understand why we allow multinational companies to come and extract it,” Traore said in a radio address marking the second anniversary of his rise to power in a military coup that ousted Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
“In fact, we will withdraw the mining permits,” Traore said in the interview, without specifying which permits or providing further details.
Gold is a major export for the West African country, and is mined by companies including London-listed Endeavour Mining, Australia-based West African Resources, Russia’s Nordgold and Canada’s Horizon Gold.
