"Australian" is irrelevant. BURKINABE is the relevant...

"Australian" is irrelevant. BURKINABE is the relevant component.

Another poster quoted Sth Africa, Australia and Brazil as examples. I think these examples are misguided as Sth Africa, Brazil and Australia are HUGELY different in sovereign terms, and none of them are remotely dependent on gold mining the way BF is.

A Few weeks ago, when the Burkinabe Mining minister was diagnosed I made the call that Burkina Faso would treat gold miners differently to everyone else when CoVid hits. The statement in the announcement "FREIGHT EXEMPT FROM LOCKDOWN MEASURES" I believe vindicates my forecast of what would happen weeks ago.

Burkinabe Gold is IMMUNE to CoVid, with good reasons.

NEED and GREED.

NEED: 75% of BFs exports are from gold mining. 75%! More people would die, and the country would be hugely vulnerable to to terrorists if that cash flow ceased. Currently France and EU are too occupied to send in the cavalry. So CoVid presents a MUCH smaller threat to Burkina Faso than a cease in gold production does.

GREED: The pollies in West Africa are well known for their approach to life and death when huge $$$ are involved. There's huge $$$ involved, and BFx players doesn't wait for capital debts to be paid, like us, to get their share. Those guys gets payments on gold pours, so they'll keep production open, it's how they operate (BF pollies).

So, as an extension of my earlier post (in Mining minister CoVid thread) I find a CoVid shutdown highly unlikely, especially now that it has been expressed as an industry excepted for Lockdown activities.