A gold deposit has been discovered in western Ivory Coast, constituting the largest in the country to date, announced the president of the Canadian mining group Montage Gold, according to a press release from the Ivorian presidency consulted by AFP Friday May 3.
The president of the Canadian group, Martino de Ciccio, met Thursday with the head of state Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan, to inform him of “the discovery of a major world-class gold deposit in the departments of Kani and Dianra”located in the Woroba district.
“The mineral resources of this deposit, the largest mine in the country to date, are estimated, according to Mr. Martino de Ciccio, at 5 million ounces, or 155.5 tonnes of gold with an average grade of 0 .72 g/t »adds the presidency.
The annual processing capacity of the plant for this deposit, called the “Koné project”, will be, according to Mr. de Ciccio cited in the press release, “11 million tonnes of ore”.
This mine will be during its exploitation “the third largest in West Africa” after two others located in Burkina Faso and Guinea, “which have respective capacities of 12.3 million tonnes and 12 million tonnes”.
Duration of twenty years
In November 2023, the Ivorian Minister of Mines, Oil and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, estimated national gold production for 2024 at 55 tonnes, compared to 41.8 tonnes in 2021, a figure already increasing compared to in previous years.
An initial sum of 400 billion CFA francs (609 million euros) will be invested in the discovered deposit, which will create “4,500 direct and indirect jobs” and will allow “the financing of social projects in favor of the populations of these localities”according to the presidency.
Construction work on the mine will begin in the last quarter of the year. It will enter production in 2027, with “an estimated lifespan of twenty years”she continues.
According to Mr. Coulibaly, at the end of 2023, Côte d’Ivoire had 227 active semi-industrial mines and 149 active artisanal mines. The country also has diamond, iron, nickel, manganese, bauxite and copper.