The Mining Code Repression Brigade (Bricm) carried out, from April 25 to May 04, 2019, a good crackdown in the village of Kouassidjetèkro (sub-prefecture of Daoukro).

12 people, according to a note from the services of the Ministry of Mines and Geology, were arrested by Bricm elements. gold buyer, three dozos and eight miners,” the note states. During this operation, the Brigade also seized two kg of raw gold, after a search of the home of Ouédraogo Alidou.

After two hearings, in particular on May 2 and 9, at the Bongouanou court (East), during which, for the first time, the Ivorian State brought a civil action, the defendants were "convicted of exploitation and of illicit purchase of precious metals", unlike the three dozos who were found not guilty but their weapons seized.

For their illicit mining activities, the eight clandestine gold washers were condemned to pay a fine of 50 million FCfa. Ditto for the gold buyer, Ouédraogo Alidou, found guilty of exercising, without authorization, the activity of trading in stones and precious metals in Côte d'Ivoire. In addition, the constitution of the State as a civil party was approved by the court, and a sum of 100 million FCfa as damage caused, will have to be paid by the culprits.

Officially installed in December 2018, the Bricm last April presented to the Minister of Mines and Geology, Jean-Claude Kouassi, in the presence of the national media, an impressive seizure in the areas of Aboisso (South-East) and Yakassé -Attobrou (East). About ten 12-gauge rifles with ammunition, six 4x4 type vehicles registered in a neighboring country, heavy machinery including diggers (more than twenty), about thirty generators with a power ranging from 75 to 130 Kwh, dozens of butane gas cylinders, refrigerators, motorcycles, etc. had been seized. “The first results are very encouraging. It's only just begun...", had warned the Minister of Mines and Geology.

“Our mission is to make sure that things happen legally and in accordance with the rules,” he reminds us at each outing. For the government representative, a fierce fight must be waged against the phenomenon of illegal gold panning.

Clandestine gold panning is developing more and more in many regions of Côte d'Ivoire, a country rich in mineral resources. A situation that often leads to violence leading to the death of men, the destruction of the environment, water pollution with the use of cyanide, a toxic product for humans, despite the many measures to counter this phenomenon. At the end of July 2018, a gendarme was even killed in this context in the north of the country. A recent evaluation of clandestine gold panning made it possible to count, on the whole of the national territory, at least 241 clandestine sites, for a population of gold panners estimated at 23,400 individuals. In neighboring countries, this phenomenon is also recurrent.