More than 2,000 researchers and mining professionals are expected at the 5th edition of the West African Mining Activities Week (SAMAO) scheduled for September 28 to 30, 2023 in the Ouaga 2000 conference room. The colors of this edition were announced this Tuesday, September 5, 2023.
The mining sector represented 16% of Burkina Faso’s GDP in 2020. In 2022, Burkina Faso came 3rd in the ranking of West African gold producers, with 57.76 tonnes delivered by its mines. A result which shows a drop of around 14%.
The Burkinabè government wants to remedy this, especially in this context of security crisis which is also one of the reasons for this decline, by continuing with the West African Mining Activities Week (SAMAO).
Organized since 2016 in the Burkinabe capital, and suspended since 2019, this event bringing together several thousand professionals from the mining sector will be held this year under the theme “Mining in Africa: what strategy to impact the development of local economies? “.
The objective stated by the organizers (Ministry in charge of Mines in partnership with the SEMICA Cabinet) is clear. This is to improve the visibility of the local mining sector in order to attract new investors, in a context of decline in gold production linked to the national security situation. Basically reassuring investors “who are in doubt” with this national situation.
“ In this context, it is imperative to maintain a good level of competitiveness in our mining sector. So holding this edition aims both to reassure our current partners and attract other investors in this sector which is one of the most resilient of our economy in the current context,” indicated Jean-Baptiste Kaboré, secretary general of the ministry . in charge of Energy, also president of the organizing committee.
To do this, more than 2000 researchers and mining professionals will discuss more than 7 sub-themes linked to the general theme of the edition. Always with the same objective: to simulate attraction in this environment. “B2B meetings, exhibitions and visits to a mining site and a tourist or quarry site are included in the program,” added the president of the organizing committee.
As a reminder, the fifth edition of the event was scheduled for December 2021, before a postponement announced a few weeks before the meeting. Despite the security situation, service revenues generated by the exploitation of quarry substances increased from 955,175,000 F CFA in 2021 to more than 1,000,000,000 F CFA in 2022, according to the SAMOA organizing committee.
Also, export revenues linked to the mining sector increased from 2,806.1 billion CFA francs in 2021 to 2,841.9 billion CFA francs in 2022, an increase of 35.8 billion FCFA.