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News of rich mineral reserves in Burundi forest reserve sparks debate

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The announcement of tin and coltan deposits potentially worth tens of billions of dollars “discovered” beneath a forest reserve has taken Burundi by storm, raising questions about its veracity and concerns about the communities and wildlife that would be displaced in an effort to start mining. The news was presented by executives at the Burundi Metal Company (BUMECO) to President Évariste Ndayishimiye during a visit to the company’s mine in the northern province of Kirundo in July. BUMECO’s general manager, Gaspard Ngendakumana, said that just one of the mine’s galleries contains 12.7 million metric tons of ore, worth more than $50 billion. According to Thomas Ndacayisaba, a BUMECO shareholder, Belgian colonists sealed a tunnel they had used to mine covertly in what is today Murehe Reserve, which overlaps with BUMECO’s concession. He added it was “filled in and concreted over” when they left, in an attempt to erase traces of the area’s mineral deposits. Murehe Reserve Murehe Reserve forms part of the Lacs du Nord Aquatic Landscape, 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura. Established in 2006, this 30,000-hectare (74,000-acre) protected area also includes Lake Rwihinda, recognized as an important bird area by BirdLife International. More than 60 bird species have been recorded here, including the vulnerable papyrus yellow warbler (Calamonastides gracilirostris), and large breeding colonies of great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo), black herons (Egretta ardesiaca), and black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax). Populations of all these species have declined steeply, according to BirdLife’s 2021 assessment, in response to decreasing…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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