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Article

1 Feb 2015

Author:
WO-MIN (African Women Unite Against Destructive Resource Extraction) et ORCADE (Organisation pour le Renforcement des Capacités de Développement), (Burkina Faso)

Burkina Faso: Extraction of gold and women’s struggle to survive in Kalsaka

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Artisanal gold mining has long been an important source of cash income for members of the 51 villages in the Kalsaka area. In 2006, the Cluff Mining Company arrived in the area and was later replaced by Amara Mining, which continues large scale gold mining operations in Kalsaka today. The establishment of industrial gold mining has led to the demise of both agricultural production and artisanal mining, the latter not least because the mining company has charged a security company with denying artisanal miners access to the gold site. Farmers expropriated of their fields are dissatisfied with the financial compensation received from the mining company because they believe it is inadequate. Former artisanal gold miners still present in Kalsaka condemn the brutality of the prohibition to access the site. The decision to prohibit access was taken without discussion with artisanal miners. In turn, countervailing measures for losses suffered by the community were not considered. Compensation was provided by the mining company only for the loss of fields. The contrast is stark between the rights granted by the state to the mining company, operating beneath the soil, and those granted to the community - farmers and artisanal miners working the soil. While the establishment of the mine has caused much upset for the community as a whole, women are the most affected.

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