Gold in Côte d'Ivoire

Gold Home

Click HERE for an overview

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.