LAUSR

This study analyzes the economic sustainability of the gold mining industry in Burkina Faso. For this purpose, the green gold GDP is used. First, the depreciation of gold stock was estimated using the concept of Hotelling rent and second, the environmental damage from gold mining companies was estimated. The human capital and the “double difference” approaches are used to estimate the environmental damage related to water and air quality deterioration. The results show that approximately 40% of the mining added value represents natural capital depreciation. The depreciation of natural capital is more important than mining revenues invested by the government. This study provides evidence that a sort of resource curse may exist, and as a result, a part of the resource rent is spent inefficiently.