Côte d'Ivoire

CIA Factbook
Political rights and civil liberties (Freedom House)
French-English online dictionary
Travel and accommodation

Source: CIA Factbook

Maps and images

• Cote d'Ivoire Google Satellite Maps
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Cities,Towns, Airports, Maps, Images
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Image-1
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Image-2
• Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) Minerals

Diamond

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Cote dIvoire has historically produced approximately 165 000 carats per year. All of the alluvial mining is sourced from the fields located at Tortiya and Seguela which is located 100 km from Korhogo. Although kimberlites have been identified in these areas, none have been mined or evaluated.

• Golden Star Resources acquired the Tortiya diamond and gold property in 1996 based on an extensive history of alluvial diamond production. No exploration had ever been directed to the discovery of the source of these alluvial diamonds, nor the alluvial gold reportedly associated with them. Based on the regional geology and structural setting, the company believes the property has potential for the discovery of diamondiferous kimberlites and shear hosted gold mineralization. Tortiya is located in central Côte d’Ivoire in an area of potential civil disturbance and is currently (2007) under a state of force majeure.

Gold in Côte d'Ivoire

Gold Home

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Geology

The Birimian greenstone belts host the structurally controlled gold mineralization.

• Cogema (French), the uranium producing company, operated the Ity and Angovia mines, which was subsequently sold to Cluff Gold.

• La Mancha Resources Inc holds a 45.9% stake in Ity,the only operating gold mine in the Côte d'Ivoire.
  The mining operations are located in the tropical environment of the Ouest Danané department of western Ivory Coast. Located about 700 km from Abidjan, the mine is named after a nearby mountain. Ity means “black water” in Yacouba, and refers to the colour of the water in the pond that sits at the top of the mountain.
  La Mancha's principal assets are the Ity and Flotouo-Zia gold deposits. Approximately 600,000 oz have been produced to date (100%). The gold doré bars are sent to Abidjan for shipment to Switzerland for refining. La Mancha'attributanle share of production in 2007, was 19 140 oz.
  La Mancha expects the Ity mine to produce 53,400 oz of gold in 2008, with the Company’s share representing 24,600 oz.
  La Mancha holds interests in five additional exploration concessions covering 3,591 km² in the Ivory Coast.

• Cluff Gold plc (CLF.L) holds the Mt. Yaoure permit which is located 40 km northwest of Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d’Ivoire, and covers a surface area of 534 km2. The licence area includes the Angovia gold mine which operated between 1998 and 2003. The mine reportedly produced over 180,000 oz of gold during this period by heap leaching some 2 million tonnes of oxide material. Data acquired from Cogema shows additional oxide resource containing an estimated 130,000 ounces of gold at 3 g/t of resource in the area immediately surrounding the mine, which has been delineated by trenching and drilling in localities close to and along strike to the ore body exploited at the mine. In addition, the data shows a sulphide resource estimated to contain 280,000 oz of gold at 4,7 g/t underlying the exploited oxide deposit. Cluff wants to produce 40 000 oz of gold per year.

• Eden Roc Mineral Corporation (Canadian) and the state run Société d'Etat pour le Development Minier de la Ivory Coast (Sodemi) operated the Afema mine.

• Randgold Resources (British, Nasdaq:GOLD; LSE:RRS, Morila and Loulo gold mines in Mali, active in Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Tanzania) is exploring the Tongon gold deposit. Randgold has spent $10m on a feasibility study for the Tongon project, which contains 3,1 million oz of gold. The company announced in Ocober, 2007, that resources at its Tongon project in Ivory Coast increased by 41% to 4.39 million oz. It will now build a plant to handle 50% more ore at 300 000 tonnes per month, it added. Tongon will start production in 2010 and produce on average 245,000 oz/year at a total cash cost of $359/oz. Combined with the Yalea and Loulo mine, Randgold should have production of 600,000 oz by 2012.
  

• Etruscan Resources (Canadian, TSX:EET.TO; ETRUF.PK, also active in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali and Niger) has an indicated resource of 9,684 million t at a grade of 2,1 g/t Au or 659 000 oz gold at a cut-off of 1,0 g/t Au, on the Agbaou project. It has also submitted applications for an additional 7,000 km² of new permits. Etruscan Resources reported in December, 2007, that reconnaissance diamond drilling in proximity to the Agbaou Gold Deposit has identified three satellite discoveries. The three satellites discoveries are respectively situated 330 meters southwest, 600 meters west and 500 meters north of the Agbaou West Deposit. Additional drilling is required to determine strike length and depth extent, however the soil and drill results suggest potential strike lengths of 200 to 400 meters for each structure.
  

• Equigold NL (Australian, ) has an indicated and inferred resource of 23,105 million t at a grade of 1,7 g/t Au or 1,283,100 oz gold at the Bonikro project.

Nickel

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Oil and Natural Gas

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Côte d’Ivoire relies on oil, natural gas and hydropower to satisfy energy consumption demand. In addition to satisfying domestic demand, Côte d’Ivoire’s oil exports bolster overall economic activity in the country, and represents 28 percent of the country’s total export revenue. According to the World Bank, oil exports have surpassed cocoa exports, which traditionally have been the mainstay of Cote d’Ivoire’s economy. Côte d’Ivoire’s oil production, which is primarily located offshore, should increase slightly in 2007 and 2008.
Côte d’Ivoire’s oil production increased from 56,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2005 to 89,000 bbl/d in 2006. New fields coming online, as well as field enhancement work allowed for the increasing oil production. Production is forecast to increase slightly over the next 2-year period, with the possibility of reaching 110,000 bbl/d by 2008. According to estimates by Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Côte d'Ivoire had 100 million barrels of proven crude oil reserves as of January 2007. The vast majority of reserves are located offshore in shallow marine areas and in deep offshore waters.
n 1975, Côte d’Ivoire established the Société Nationale d'Operations Pétrolières de la Côte d'Ivoire (Petroci) to oversee the country’s oil operations. In 1998, the government re-structured Petroci by dividing it into four entities, which include: Petroci Holding (responsible for portfolio management of the oil sector), Petroci Exploration-Production (responsible for upstream hydrocarbon activities), Petroci-Gaz (responsible for the natural gas sector), and Petroci Industries-Services (responsible for all other related services). Foreign companies involved in Côte d’Ivoire’s oil sector include Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, Dana Petroleum (U.K.), Devon Energy (U.S.), Oil India Ltd, Pluspetrol (Argentina), Sinopec (China), and Tullow Oil.

• Oil production: 32,900 bbl/day (2005 est.)
• Oil proved reserves: 220 million bbl (2006 est.)

• Natural gas production: 1.3 billion cu m (2004 est.)
• Natural gas proved reserves: 28.32 billion cu m (1 January 2005 est.)

• Devon Energy Corporation operates the Lion and Panthere fields on Block CI-11, which, according to IHS Energy GEPS Reports, netted the company 3,600 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in 2006. Devon's partners on Block CI-11 include Petroci, Pluspetrol of Argentina, and International Finance Corporation. In addition to Block CI-11, Devon holds interests (ranging from 35 percent to 80 percent) in several other blocks in Côte d'Ivoire. As of April 2007, Devon was considering selling its Côte d’Ivoire interests .
  
  
• Tullow Oil has production, development and exploration interests in several offshore blocks - CI-103, CI-105, CI-107, CI-108 and CI-26, Special Area E. Block CI-26 comprises the producing East Espoir oil field, the West Espoir field, which started production in July 2006 and the Acajou discovery, which is expected to be developed as a subsea tie-back. The East Espoir field in Special Area E commenced production in February 2002 and averaged 18,960 boepd during 2005. However during 2006, the field achieved record production of over 30,000 bopd following a successful infill drilling programme. Oil production from the first West Espoir development commenced in July 2006. The development remains within budget and is on schedule to reach peak production of 10,000 boepd in late 2007. The project includes a new wellhead tower, tied back via a 5.5 km pipeline to the Espoir FPSO where fluids produced from East and West Espoir are co-mingled and processed using the existing facilities. Together the two fields are currently producing over 35,000 boepd.

Source: Tullow Oil

• In August 2005, Canadian Natural Resources (CNR) brought its Baobab oil field onstream, with initial production averaging 48,000 bbl/d. According to IHS Energy GEPS Reports, Baobab achieved peak production of 52,000 bbl/d during the first quarter of 2006. However, due to sand control problems, Baobab was producing only 25,000 bbl/d during the later half of 2006. The offshore field is located in Block CI-40. CNR is operator of the block with a 57.6 percent interest and is joined with partners Svenska Petroleum Exploration AB (27.4 percent), and Petroci (15 percent). CNR also operators the Espoir field, which is located in Block CI-26. In 2006, the Espoir field produced an average of 31,000 bbl/d of oil. The field has a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years, with production expected to peak at 35,000 bbl/d of oil. The West Espoir field began producing in mid-2006 and is expected to peak at around 13,000 bbl/d of oil in 2007. CNR holds 58.7 percent interest in Block CI-26 and is joined with partners Tullow Oil (21.3 percent) and Petroci (20 percent).
  

• Vanco Energy Company has estimated that 2.7 billion barrels of oil is located in the San Pedro ridge and other deposits in Block CI-112 off the western coast of Côte d'Ivoire . India 's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd (21.2 percent), Oil India (10.4 percent) and China 's Sinopec (27 percent) signed on to the CI-112 project in December 2004, reducing Vanco's stake to 27 percent. This is the first African deepwater exploration venture for all three state-owned firms. In March 2005, Vanco drilled the San Pedro 1 well on Block CI-112, but later plugged the well due to a lack of hydrocarbons. In October 2005, Vanco signed two production sharing agreements ( PSAs ) with Côte d’Ivoire for Blocks CI-401 and CI-101.