Burkina: Minister Baro asks artisanal miners to work in cooperatives to transform gold panning into semi-mechanized mines

During an interview on Wednesday, the Minister in charge of the environment, Roger Baro, urged artisanal miners to organize themselves into cooperatives and not individually to transform gold panning into semi-mechanized mines."We need to raise the bar so that people can transform themselves into small mines, semi-mechanized ones, where they have a space that is defined and can work according to the regulations that exist," said the Minister in charge of the environment, Roger Baro.The Minister of Environment, Water and Sanitation, Roger Baro, granted an interview to the Sidwaya newspaper, published on Wednesday.For Mr. Baro, there is a need for a paradigm shift in the gold mining sector. For him, gold mining was done with "rudimentary means" that contributed to environmental degradation.The ambition of his ministerial department is therefore to go to small semi-mechanized mines, he insisted.The minister reassured that to move in this direction, the National Society of Precious Substances (SONASP) is working to supervise the actors.He indicated that this company has already proven itself, particularly in the South-West region, where with the help of certain partners, it has been able to organize artisanal miners.With the Planet Gold project, on one hectare, they have put in place a gold processing system without mercury, he rejoiced.Source: Burkina Information Agency