Burkina Faso to Use Gold Royalties for Social Development Fund

(REUTERS) -- Burkina Faso plans to create a social development fund from the government's tax and royalty revenue from gold mining, the country's mines minister said on Wednesday.

"It would come from the revenue of gold," Salif Kabore told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Cape Town called the Investing in African Mining Indaba. He said the fund would go toward "communities and the environment".

Asked if it meant any changes in taxes and royalties, he said: "No, not more taxes."

He declined to give further details.

Burkina Faso is an emerging gold producer in frontier Africa, but as in much of Africa, mineral wealth there has yet to translate into wider prosperity, a point underscored last year when riots broke out over food and fuel price increases.

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