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MODERN MINING
June 2015
feature
MINING IN AFRICA
M
ost of these projects are lo-
cated in Mali, Ghana, Cote
d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and
Burkina Faso, the ‘usual sus-
pects’ when it comes to West
African gold mining, but an interesting current
development is the emergence of Liberia – em-
broiled in a civil war little more than a decade
ago – as yet another attractive gold mining des-
tination in the West African region.
Mali – destination of choice
Mali has arguably been the West African des-
tination of choice for gold explorers in recent
years and it now has a well-established gold
mining industry that rivals Ghana’s. The coun-
try’s next new mine will be
Yanfolila
, which
is being developed by UK-based, AIM-quoted
Hummingbird Resources. The company said
in April this year that it was embarking on
the early site earthworks at Yanfolila and also
announced the appointment of Johann du
Preez (ex Lycopodium and MDM Ferroman) as
project construction manager. Long lead items
for the project have been ordered including the
Gold resurgent
inWest Africa
This very recent photo from an aerial drone shows early earthworks underway at Hummingbird’s Yanfolila project in Mali (photo: Hummingbird Resources).
The gold mining industry in South Africa might be in the doldrums but in West Africa it is very buoyant
– almost booming in fact – with a whole raft of projects either under construction or close to imple-
mentation and poised to deliver well over a million ounces of new gold production within the next
three to five years. In this article,
Modern Mining’s
Arthur Tassell reviews some of the more significant
gold projects in the region, several of which are being built by South African contractors.