Burundi is a small landlocked country bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to the west, Rwanda to the north and Tanzania to the east and south. Burundi is endowed with deposits of gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum (3Ts), lithium, rare earth minerals (the lanthanides), vanadium, titanium, nickel, cobalt, copper, platinum group elements (PGEs), phosphates, and various industrial minerals and mineral fuels such as peat and hydrocarbons. The mining sector's contribution to government revenues, export earnings, employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) remains very low. All three stakeholder groups - Government, Industry and Civil Society are dissatisfied with the state of the mining sector in Burundi. In 2021 the Government took the decision to suspend four mining contracts, pending the promulgation of a new Mining Code (August 2023). Since 2021 the mining sector has fallen into a state of stagnation and has received virtually no foreign investment. In November 2023 the Government adopted an Action Plan for the Development of the Mining sector, following the promulgation of the Mining Code in August 2023. A key component in the World Bank's support to the Burundi government is the Mining Sector Diagnostic (MSD) presented in this report. The MSD is a data-driven tool that the World Bank has developed to comprehensively assess a country's mining sector. Specifically, the tool assesses the overall policy environment for the sector and clearly identifies the mining sector's strengths and weaknesses along the Extractive Industries (EI) Value Chain
