Burundi is a country with vast mineral resources. However, many of them lie unexploited mainly because they have not been detected and exploited.

That has started to change. Early in the year, a farmer in Kigomero locality, Tangara commune in Ngozi province bordering with Rwanda, discovered cobalt in his backyard.

Local sources say the farmer unexpectedly dug up the cobalt in April while cultivating in his backyard.

From the time of the discovery, the news of cobalt presence spread through the commune and caught the attention of the peasants of potentially great earnings.

The residents later dug up their own plots to check for traces of cobalt in their estates. A couple of days later, other sites were discovered in the same commune at a place called Musaza.

By April this year, this discovery led to a flurry of haphazard cobalt exploitation leading to black market trading and unlicensed exploitation by land owners and business men.

This was done in spite of interventions by local and central government administrations from April. Unofficial sources put the cobalt reserves in the millions of tones with potential for large scale mining.

In June, as the unregulated mining became more active, conflicts and fighting among the local mining communities intensified. The local administration and government intervened and shut down all mining activities to stem the already worsening scenario.

"To avoid the chaos, I have acted in collaboration with the ministry of mines and energy to make the mining task legal," the communal administrator of Tangara commune, Mr. Peter Claver Mvukiyumwami, told East African Business Week.

"The communal administration and the ministry staff have jointly settled the matter by legalizing the operations in July. The mining was illicitly carried out by business men to the detriment of land owners, what resulted in endless conflicts," he said.

Local traders buy cobalt at the mining sites at 2,000 Fr Bu (US$2) per kilogramme.

They later sell the mineral at 5,000 Fr ($5) per kilo to business men from Kayanza province bordering with Rwanda, Kirundo and Muyinga provinces neighboring Tanzania. These provinces are highly endowed with minerals and exploitation has increased exponentially over the months.

The businessmen sell the cobalt to dealers in Rwanda where they get around $12 a kilogram.

Some of the locals have adopted the strategy of hiring out their estates to prospectors, according to local sources. One of the farmers East African Business Week visited got 4,000,000 Fr BU ($4,000). Another one got $ 2,000 for a few acres.

The two persons have since gone into trading and livestock farming.

"Cobalt has contributed largely to the economic development of the commune.

Tangara commune's revenues and taxes are helping us to grapple with infrastructure growth and development," Mvukiyumwami says.

He adds that, with the taxes accrued, "We have been able to pay the communal civil servants on time while it was the opposite before the start of the mining. Local government offices have been built and a primary school too.

"The incomes from cobalt have widely contributed to raising funds for rural electrification of Musenyi center in Tangara commune that has existed in writing for ages without being executed. The project is likely to be implemented this year," he adds.

More cobalt is said to have been discovered up north at Gakere sector in Kiremba commune in Ngozi province, bordering with Rwanda.

The country's mining sector is still grappling with challenges of reconstruction and rehabilitation. As it emerges from a war situation.

The instability, which begun about 13 years ago, left the country impoverished and in need of help and reconstruction. A World Bank 2006 report says that 80% of the local population survives on less than $1 a day. However, the conditions are gradually improving as most of the fighting groups have joined the government in a gesture of unity. Now cobalt mining is forward to the betterment on their lifestyle.

Cobalt is a hard, lustrous, silver-grey metal.

It is used in the preparation of magnetic, wear-resistant, and high-strength alloys. Its compounds are used in the production of glass, inks, paints, and varnishes.