Endeavour Mining Confirms Forced Purchase of Gold by Burkina Faso Govt.

BURKINA Faso forcibly bought 200 kilograms of gold from Endeavour Mining in order to cover “public needs”, said Bloomberg News.

The Toronto-listed gold miner told the newswire it had signed a contract to sell about 7,000 ounces from its Mana mine at current market prices.

“This sale is in line with the country’s mining code which stipulates that it may acquire gold directly from mining companies, in exceptional circumstances for reasons of public necessity, subject to fair and pre-agreed terms,” Endeavour said in a statement.

Burkina Faso sought to reassure investors after announced the gold purchase. “The government reassures investors and all the other partners of Burkina Faso that the requisition decision comes within an exceptional context dictated by public needs in which the state is asking certain mining companies to sell part of their gold production to the state,” it said in a statement reported by Bloomberg News.

The newswire said Burkina Faso’s interim president Ibrahim Traore took power in September in the second coup in six months, promising to step up the fight against the militants that control almost half the country’s territory.

Security in Burkina Faso has become an issue for Endeavour at its Boungou mine where it halted exploration fearing for the safety of its employees. 

Burkina Faso last month ended its military collaboration with France, after relations frayed when Traore’s junta came to power, said Bloomberg News. French troops withdrew from neighboring Mali after a 2020 coup in the former colony and the deployment of the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked Russian private military company.

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