The IGF held a regional workshop for administrative officials in West Africa to enhance their capacity to estimate mine closure and rehabilitation costs.
The event was organized in partnership with the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA, in French) and delivered virtually, with 36 participants from all eight UEMOA countries attending from their respective countries.
The training covered various topics, including the principles of mine closure, cost calculation methodologies, financial assurance, relinquishment, and mine closure case studies. During the event, participants shared their diverse experiences. They posed questions to deepen their understanding of topics like the definition and management of relinquishment, differences between mine closure monitoring and post-mining risk monitoring, and the efficiency of financial guarantees.
Participants identified challenges, such as skills and experience gaps among regulators, inadequate regulatory frameworks, and the lack of effective national cost estimation tools. The workshop also incorporated a checklist for cost estimation developed by the IGF, which participants found useful but noted it required domain-specific knowledge for better usability.