Burundi gets 15% gold-mining stake amid minerals expansion plans

(Bloomberg) — Burundi announced the start of operations of African Mining Burundi Ltd., a local gold miner in which the government has a 15 percent stake, as the East African nation puts its mineral resources at the center of a planned economic resurgence.

The company has been granted rights to nine mining sites, President Pierre Nkurunziza said at a Monday ceremony in Burundi’s northeast Muyinga province, according to national radio. Nkurunziza said AMB was created in Burundi last year but didn’t say who owns the remaining 85 percent.

Burundi has declared an end to a more than three-year political crisis and is seeking to attract investment to the landlocked nation, which has 6 percent of the world’s known nickel reserves as well as gold, coltan and rare-earth minerals. A 10-year development plan targets raising economic growth to 10.7 percent by 2017 and increasing revenue from minerals by 47 percent.

(By Desire Nimubona)