CIBITOKE February 20th (ABP) – The Director General (DG) of the Burundi Mines and Quarries Authority (OBM), Mr. Jean Claude Nduwayo, along with Governor Joseph Iteriteka of Cibitoke Province (North-West Burundi), met, at the headquarters of Mabayi commune on Monday, February 18, 2019, with representatives of cooperatives operating in a traditional way the mines and quarries to answer the questions related to the resumption of the mining. It was also the opportunity of sensitizing the operators to the purchase of the shares in Tanganyika Mining Burundi Company exploiting those minerals industrially.
The DG of the OBM expressed satisfaction with the fact that fraud in the mining and quarrying sector has decreased significantly since the introduction of the OBM. He reassured the artisanal miners in Cibitoke Province that the OBM agents are not there to disrupt their activities, but rather to enforce the law with respect to the exploitation of mines and quarries.
The DG of the OBM stated that the company doing the industrial exploitation came for the public interest and to provide the necessary means to the State in the accomplishment of its missions. He also reminded the participants of the criteria to be met for the renewal of the authorization for the resumption of mining in a traditional way. The same official showed them on the map the land of nearly 150 km2 that the Tanganyika Mining Burundi Company doing the industrial exploitation finally agreed to yield for the artisanal exploitation, to stay only with 250 km2 in its industrial operation perimeter.
The representatives of the mining cooperatives expressed their dissatisfaction by pointing out that the Tanganyika Mining Company has withdrawn from them all the sites recognized to have housed more minerals without reimbursing them for what they had already spent on those sites.
For that purpose, the DG of the OBM meant that the subsoil remains the heritage of the State and that the inhabitants are only the owners of houses, trees and crops occupying the area. They can claim compensation for the latter.
Governor Iteriteka thanked the DG of the OBM for providing so much clarification to the mining operators wanting to resume their activities. He urged mining operators to do more mining work and to respect the mining law for their own interest and that of the State.
