The Burundian Office of Mines and Quarries (OBM), a state institution with autonomous management, was created in 2016 to plan and coordinate all activities in the mining sector in Burundi.

The missions of the Burundian Office of Mines and Carrières are to control and monitor geological, mining, quarrying and hydrocarbon activities as well as to support the collection and recovery of revenues from the mining, quarrying and petroleum sectors.

More specifically, it is about:

• participate in the development of sectoral policy and its strategy and ensure its execution;

• promote geological and hydrocarbon research activities and their development;

• monitor the execution of research and exploitation permits, approvals and authorizations;

• ensure compliance with social, safety, health, health, labour, labour, production, transport, marketing and environmental standards, in collaboration with the other institutions concerned;

• ensure the management and conservation of geological infrastructures;

• inventory and update the country's mineral resources directory and supervise their development;

• promote mining, quarrying and oil projects; promote the activities of public or private mining companies;

• monitor the restructuring, reconversion and organization activities of companies in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors as a whole;

• contribute to the capacity building of small-scale operators of mines and quarries;

• collect data relating to the production, processing and marketing of mining, quarrying and petroleum products;

• monitor, in collaboration with the institutions concerned, cooperation projects and actions in the mining and petroleum fields at the regional and international levels;

• ensure the strengthening of the capacities of its staff and those of other partner institutions;

• plan and supervise geological mining and hydrocarbon research work;

• demarcate the perimeters and ensure their regular control;

• propose the royalty base, support the OBR in collecting revenue and monitor contracts concluded between a licensee and its Affiliated Companies in collaboration with the Ministry in charge of Finance;

• conduct physicochemical analyses as part of the geological, mining and hydrocarbon inventory as well as the control of production and exports;

• providing laboratory services to state institutions and third parties;

• ensure the application of specific regulations on the manufacture, transport, storage, storage, use, sale and import of explosive products;

• inspect mining sites and monitor their rehabilitation;

• carry out and validate economic studies and balance sheets of mining companies; participate in the environmental assessment of the Mitigation and Rehabilitation Plan for mining sites, in the acronym PAR and ensure its control;

• develop statistics on the state of the environment in areas where mining or oil activity is active;

• monitor the execution of permits and authorizations;

• ensure the supervision and monitoring of artisanal mining and quarrying operations, including technology transfer;

• implement the Regional Initiative to Combat Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources (LRRN);

• carry out drilling work;

• analyze requests for mining and quarrying rights and petroleum rights;

• audit mining, oil and quarry research and exploitation, in particular with regard to taxation, the physical, economic and social environment and at the technical level;

• receive and analyze complaints relating to mining and oil activities between the various stakeholders (operators, populations, administration);

• ensure the technical cadastral examination of applications for the approval of permits, authorizations and their renewal or modification;

• maintain the cadastre of mining and petroleum exploration and exploitation areas; maintain mining titles, quarry and hydrocarbon approvals;

• issue opinions in the event of the classification, decommissioning or reclassification of a prohibited area;

• perform any other activity necessary to carry out its mission.

In the exercise of its mission to support the collection and collection of revenues from the mining, quarrying and petroleum sectors, the fees thus ordered, liquidated or recovered are paid directly by the taxpayer to the account of the Burundian Revenue Office (OBR).