Burundi

Burundi's rare-earth history sits in one district, Gakara, a field of narrow bastnaesite and monazite veins about 20 km south-southeast of Bujumbura. A Belgian company, and later a venture between a Belgian company and the Burundian state, mined the veins intermittently and exported a few thousand metric tons of high-grade material.

Rainbow Rare Earths revived the district with trial mining and a gravity plant that produced a concentrate grading above 50% TREO without chemical reagents. The veins are rich but thin, from a few centimeters to a few tens of centimeters wide, and that geometry has kept tonnage uncertain.

Consultants' technical reports define only an Exploration Target, a conceptual range of tonnage and grade, and report no Mineral Resource. An independent review of Rainbow's own earlier resource estimate recommended collecting reliable data before any Mineral Resource is reported.

The government halted exports and then all mining at Gakara, and it has since amended the mining code. USGS lists no rare-earth production or reserves for Burundi. The open question for any operator is whether terms set after a forced shutdown can finance veins whose size has never been measured to resource standard.