Houndé Mine is a

gold mine Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more comple ...

located in the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Houndé Houndé is a city located in the Provinces of Burkina Faso, province of Tuy Province, Tuy (of which it is the capital) in the Hauts-Bassins Region of Burkina Faso. It is situated about east by northeast of Bobo-Dioulasso along the trunk road Ro ...

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...

. The mine is 90% owned by

Endeavour Mining Endeavour Mining plc is a multinational mining company that owns and operates gold mines in Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Senegal. The company is headquartered in London, England, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is a constituen ...

, and 10% owned by the Government of Burkina Faso. According to Endeavour Mining, the Houndé Mine employs approximately 1,860 people. It is the company's second-biggest gold mine, and accounted for nearly 30% of gold produced by Endeavour Mining in 2023.

History

first purchased the land on the site of the mine in 2012, and published a feasibility study for gold mining the following year. In 2015, the government awarded Endeavour Mining a permit to begin mining, and construction on the mine began the following April. Commercial production of gold began in the fourth quarter of 2017. In May 2022, the Houndé Mine was the site of a series of violent protests. Per a government spokesperson, the protests started on May 17 after the government ordered the expulsion of gold miners it said were there without permits. The spokesperson said this "was not to the liking of the miners", who protested by ransacking the mine, injuring seven people and causing significant property damage. The arrest of 12 of the protestors led to another violent episode on May 24, in which two protestors died, one of whom was fatally shot. Following the

September 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état A coup d'état took place in Burkina Faso on 30 September 2022, removing Interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba over his alleged inability to deal with the country's Islamist insurgency. Damiba had come to power in a coup d'état eigh ...

, Endeavour Mining stated that its work in

was "unaffected by recent political events". On January 21, 2024, workers at the Houndé Mine went on

strike Strike may refer to: People *Strike (surname) * Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm * Airstrike, ...

. On January 30, a Burkinabé court ruled that the strike was illegal, and ordered the expulsion of the striking workers. On February 1, Endeavour Mining said that work at the mine had resumed.

References

{{coord, 11.418, -3.533, type:landmark_region:BF_dim:3000, display=title Gold mines in Burkina Faso Tuy Province