Libreville, October 15, 2023 (AGP) – Teams from the Ministry of Mines have been present since this Sunday in Ndjolé, which will constitute the first stage of a long journey which will extend throughout Gabon over the next three months .
After the announcement, the realization. Teams from the Ministry of Mines arrived, this Sunday, October 15, 2023, in the town of Ndjolé, the capital of the department of Abanga Bigné, in Moyen-Ogooué (Center), for the launch, starting this Monday October 16, of the vast campaign to regularize Gabonese artisanal miners, following the lifting of the measure banning gold panning in Gabon and which dated from September 2018.
In practice, regularization will consist of issuing Gabonese artisanal miners with official cards which will allow them to operate legally.
After Ndjolé and the rest of the Middle Ogooué province (from October 16 to November 5, 2023), the teams from the Ministry of Mines will travel to the provinces of Woleu-Ntem and Ngounié (from November 13 to December 3, 2023). ), Nyanga (from December 4 to December 11, 2023), Ogooué-Ivindo (from December 6 to December 26, 2023), Haut-Ogooué (from December 14 to December 23, 2023), Ogooué- Lolo (from December 24, 2023 to January 13, 2024) and finally, de l’Estuaire (from December 29, 2023 to January 4, 2024).
To this end, people wishing to carry out gold panning, diamond prospecting, or sand mining activities must present themselves to these teams, provided with a file including half a photo card, the original or a legalized photocopy of the identity document, a criminal record extract dated less than six months ago, and a sum of fifty thousand CFA francs.
Those who have already completed this formality will simply have to update their criminal record extracts. As for those who do not have their complete files on the aforementioned dates, they will have to go to the Directorate in charge of artisanal mining, located at the December 2 building, on Boulevard Triomphal in Libreville.
If the empowerment of rural populations is at the heart of the process of reviving artisanal mining activity, the fact remains that Gabon, within the framework of its environmental commitments, will spare no effort to ensure that the sites selected for artisanal mining comply with environmental standards, in accordance with the mining law in force in Gabon. But also, that the gold mining process respects the Ethical and Environmental Charter to which each artisan commits when subscribing to the artisanal mining card with the Ministry of Mines.
FSS/AGP
