Burkina Faso, in West Africa, produces 34 tonnes of artisanal gold per year, but only 300kg was formally exported in 2019 due to a lack of traceability and lower export taxes in neighbouring countries.
The Burkina Faso government has now lowered the taxes when exporting through L’Agence Nationale d’Encadrement des Exploitations Minières Artisanales et Semi-artisanales (ANEEMAS), the government body for artisanal and small-scale production.
Minexx has been working with local traders, NGO partners and ANEEMAS to drive production via a traceable route to market. During this export the different batches from different sources were tracked on the Minexx platform, along with information obtained through due diligence and associated reports from site visits.
Last year Minexx, in a world first, exported minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo processing $250,000 of digital, blockchain certified payments.
While gold is best known for either investment or for jewellery, it is also a very efficient conductor and can be found in smartphones and televisions.
In terms of the distribution of gold demand in 2020, 8% was for technology.
“If we are going to achieve net zero we are going to require even more minerals and this is going to have an impact on countries around the world, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,” Marcus Scaramanga, Minexx CEO said in a media release.
“It is more important than ever that we move with pace, leveraging technology to provide solutions to the challenges the world faces and to play our role in delivering benefits to all in the supply chain – from the artisanal miners through to the consumer. This breakthrough in Burkina Faso is another important step in this journey.”
