ARTISANAL AND SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINES IN BURKINA FASO ...

The water trade, especially in the Sahel zone, remains the monopoly of the village that accepts to supply
the miners with wells or boreholes. This trade, though an inexhaustible source of user conflicts with
farmers, is a well-spring of substantial profits. The village of Boulonga (1,500 inhabitants) that, during the
dry season, supplies about 50 m 3 /day of water to the neighbouring site of Alga at a cost of CFA 3,750/m 3 ,
daily receives in exchange between CFA 150,000 and 200,000 (up to € 305), or more than
CFA 100/day/inhabitant.
However, with the exception of some pit owners, most artisanal gold miners have neither the culture nor
the financial capacity to build up a sizeable capital. Their “meagre” earnings of about CFA 800 to 1000 per
day (€ 1,20 to 1,55 a day) are mostly spent on site to cover daily essentials, such as food, water, lodging,
transport and health services, the cost of which commonly is prohibitive in artisanal gold mining areas.
Most itinerant gold miners, whether local or foreign, have trouble saving enough to help the family that
stays behind in the village. Most of the wealth locally created by gold-mining activity never leaves the
province (Fig. 3).
PRP: pit owner; GDP: pit watchman; MNR: miner; TRM: ore transporter; GDH: shed watchman; CON: crusher;
PIL: grinder; TRE: water transporter; LVR: sluice washer; VAN: winnower; PRM: mill owner; MEU: miller; RLV: rewasher.
Fig. 3 – Reference site of Alga – distribution of income (in kCFA/day) in terms of tasks and distance
between mining site and the original village
THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT NEEDS MONITORING
Artisanal gold mining in Burkina locally can cause adverse ecological impacts, such as unprotected
abandoned sites, infertile farm land, damaged forests 4 , groundwater lowered through excessive pumping
4 At Gueguere (Ioba Province) equivalent of almost 30 ha of forest has been destroyed for shoring up a trench of 100 m length an 25 m depth.
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