Thank you very much.
I want to thank you for inviting me.
Let me be a bit precise about what my background is. I'm a lecturer in the anthropology department of Leiden University in the Netherlands, and over the last 20 years my research has mainly focused on west Africa and on Burkina Faso in particular.
I've live in Burkina for several years, working as an anthropologist in a bilateral development project, and over the last five years I've done research on artisanal mining and company community relations, with particular reference to Canadian exploration companies operating in Burkina. I've also done field work in Mali, Ghana, and Guinea.
In west Africa, large-scale explorations for mineral wealth and mining almost always occur in rural areas where access to land for agriculture and artisanal mining are crucial for livelihoods of poor local populations.
I'm focusing my research on the tensions, opportunities, and expectations these—