• A pavilion visible by its size and content
• “Our mining sector is impacted by insecurity but not handicapped”
• “The potential has never been greater”
LBurkina Faso was present at INDABA 2023, from February 6 to 9, 2023, through a strong delegation. With the president of the Chamber of Mines, Adama Soro, L’Economiste du Faso looks back on the major lessons of this world event in Cape Town, South Africa.
The Economist of Faso: What prompted him to take part in this event, when the situation on the ground is not favorable, being marked by terrorist attacks which caused the closure of mines?
Adama Soro, President of the Chamber of Mines: Mining INDABA, for those who don’t know, is the largest global mining forum on African territory. It is extremely important to remember this. The whole world meets for four days in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss mining issues. It is sure that many investors are present, but not that, there are also representatives of governments, private and public financing institutions, in particular, the World Bank, and especially mining companies and mining suppliers. It is also the place to see mining projects and exhibiting countries.
For this 2023 edition, we saw, in particular, more than 9,000 participants, most of whom came from mining or future countries. The latter exposed the geological and investment potential through stands for the most part, and pavilions for some. It was therefore important that this meeting at which Burkina Faso has become accustomed to being present still be there, especially in these times, as you said, so difficult on the security level but also on the economic level, with imported inflation, to convey the message of resilience. It is not because times are difficult, for the reasons mentioned above, that the mining potential of our country has changed or disappeared. No, on the contrary, Burkina’s potential has never been greater, especially with the good performance of the price of gold. Mining projects, particularly gold, despite the difficulty we may have in terms of security, are still of interest. It is therefore important to always promote this sector, because today’s deposits are yesterday’s discoveries. If we don’t do research, we won’t find deposits and we won’t be able to stay the course. This is the reason why the Chamber of Mines and the ministry in charge of mines and quarries, but also a set of actors involved in the value chain of the mining sector, were kind enough to participate in this 2023 edition.
Can you come back to the composition of the Burkinabè delegation which went to South Africa?
The Burkinabè delegation, made up of around forty participants, was led by the minister in charge of energy, mines and quarries, with a strong delegation from the public administration. We had the privilege that Minister Simon-Pierre Boussim did the notable honor to the Burkinabè mining actors to participate in this edition, despite his busy schedule, we thank him for that. Furthermore, we have innovated this year; indeed, the Chamber of Mines of Burkina, as I said, the main umbrella organization for the mining players in the country, has initiated, in collaboration with Bumigeb and the ministry in charge of mines for the first time of its kind, a pavilion , which brought together some thirty mining companies, local suppliers and banks. This pavilion made it possible to give more brilliance and resonance to the participation of our country. I take the opportunity to thank the companies that have kindly sponsored this pavilion, but also the day of Burkina Faso, these are, in particular: Endeavor Mining, Tropic Mining, Corica / Sftp, Coris Bank International, Bms-Human Project, Aeci, Burkina Equipment, Bel Emploi, Societe Generale Burkina Faso, But Also Sarama Resources and Iamgold Essakane, to which must be added the Burkina Chamber of Mines and Bumigeb, two conductors of the practical organization of this participation. The second innovation this year is that it was not only mining companies but there were also local suppliers, which is a great thing.
So does this mean that Burkina Faso had a lot to offer this year?
Yes, Burkina Faso had a lot to offer. The innovation is that we said to ourselves this time, with this initiative led by the Chamber of Mines, it is in difficult times that we must be more audible. A stand as we did in other years was therefore not enough. We had to take a flag. Moreover, we are happy because, unlike other countries, our visibility in the sub-region has been much noticed and welcomed by our sister organizations in the sub-region. I’m not going to name any country, but I can tell you that by far, the Burkinabè pavilion was the most visible by its location, by its size, by its organization, and attracted a lot of investors. We clearly saw that the idea of the pavilion was an excellent idea. Once once more, we say thank you to the sponsors, members of the Chamber of Mines or not, who trusted our organization for the realization of this initiative, because it is not given, I can tell you, to have a pavilion at INDABA, it costs a lot of money. So it was also our way of contributing to the promotion of the country, to the promotion of our sector. This is also an outpouring of patriotism. I say it, not all soldiers are necessarily with Kalashnikovs. There are economic soldiers and it is also our role to carry the Burkinabè flag higher, through such initiatives.
Mining investment was at the heart of this edition. What are the current trends?
As shown in the theme: “Developing, unlocking the potential and the future of the African mining sector, through initiatives and investments”. Today, we can say that this edition has allowed, in any case when we look at the panels, the quality of the speakers (we had the great honor of having Presidents Ramaphosa and Tchishekedi), to have good exchanges and to consider sustainable but above all endogenous solutions for the development of the sector.
This edition marks the return to the tradition of organizing Mining INDABA in early February, following an interruption and date changes over the past two years, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. An edition where our country stood out in a very good way.
The costs of exporting gold are increasing pupils. Isn’t Burkina Faso more handicapped today with insecurity?
Disabled, I don’t know if that’s the word, but I would say rather impacted. I think that today, it would be a bad read not to recognize that our country is impacted. There is an additional cost which is generated by insecurity, by inflation which is unfortunately imported. Operating costs were burdened by these two factors mentioned above. It should also be noted that certain situations of difficult cohabitation with artisanal miners have led to loss of human life and material damage. Unfortunately, there are also some tensions with communities. In short, all of this really drove up the costs. Yes, we are impacted but we are not handicapped. I think the country is still a mining country, with great potential. o
Interview conducted by video conference from Durban, by FW AD transcript
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What lessons do you take away from INDABA 2023?
INDABA 2023, as I said, follows post-Covid recovery. We now feel that African mining players are showing real resilience. Burkina Day, which was held on February 8, was an opportunity to raise the voice of our country more on its potential and its resilience provided by its mining sector. The Minister also recalled this in his speech opening the pavilion. We must salute this resilience, it is mainly due to our mining companies, but above all through our workers, our subcontractors, our operators and our contractors who, despite everything, have stayed the course.
As we can see, Covid-19 and inflation have certainly impacted the sector but have not dampened the enthusiasm of mining investors, nor the enthusiasm of mining workers to revive the sector. We were certainly impacted, but as we would say in military jargon: “affected but not affected”. The sector is affected, but the sector still remains with resilience capacities, with solid resources to move forward. This, of course, requires accompanying measures. I think that these are all the points that, during these four days in Cape Town, through Mining INDABA, were debated. I was going to tell you that this was another INDABA that takes on another different flavor from past editions, because it comes at a time when the sector is heavily impacted. It was therefore important for us to get together, players in the mining sector, particularly worldwide, to see how to get off to a good start, to see how to redefine the conditions for rebuilding a stronger African mining sector. I take the opportunity to say it, especially since more and more countries find the contribution of the mining sector to the GDP quite significant. I take the case of our country, it is more than 16% in 2020. We are in an average of 6 or 10% for many mining countries in Africa. This shows that the extractive sector is very important. There are also environmental, social and governance issues that were discussed at length, through several panels.
In particular, on issues of climate change, but above all of inclusion, resilience and fair sharing of the income generated. As you know, the three major levers of the extractive sector, in general, are attractiveness, competitiveness and equitable revenue sharing. These three levers are interdependent. If we play too much on one to the detriment of the other two, we create unhealthy governance at the sector level. But as I said, as much as we have to share the revenues equitably among the stakeholders who are the State, the investors and the community, we have to keep the sector always competitive and attractive. This is extremely important. These are all questions that were debated during these 4 days. Once once more, with a very strong and remarkable presence of Burkina Faso, through its pavilion.
FW
