INTRODUCTION

In the list of the top ten mining nations in Africa, Cote d’Ivoire is rarely listed, focusing on regions to the south. But this tiny African nation has the greatest mining capacity on some of the continents and an abundance of natural resources that make it one of the most lucrative investment opportunities on offer. While many like to think of Cote d’Ivoire as the world's leading exporter of cocoa beans, in terms of mining, and other natural resources, the nation has plenty to offer.

Mining Potential and Mineral Resources

More than two-thirds of the mineral-rich Birimian Greenstone Belt extending from Senegal to Ghana lies within the boundaries of Cote d’Ivoire. Sadly, this mineral resource remains untapped and accounts for just 5% of the Belt's output. Compared with 14 percent from Ghana, the Cote D’Ivoire is a huge resource waiting to be exploited. It’s not all gold either, though that is the primary resource of the belt. Cote d’Ivoire is a country rich in minerals on a safe and enhancing road to real economic riches.

In 2011, President Alassane Ouattara the president of Cote d’lvoire promised to expand and diversify the Ivoirian economy. To this end mineral and mining laws have been rewritten, dozens of new mineral licenses have been granted and gold production has increased over the past few years. Despite the attractive potential of the nation, investors remain uneasy after the 2010/11 Ivorian crisis, many preferring to take a wait-and-see attitude. The introduction of the 2012 Investment Code and the renewed interest in the industrial sector have prompted more interest in the mining industry overall. Cote D’Ivoire could one be as popular as a gold producer as the great nations to the south.

Gold was mined from small shafts sunk into the earth or from rivers and stream beds during the pre-colonial period and was sold on the coast or across the Sahara Desert. Efforts to explore gold reserves at Kokoumbo in the center of the country and at small mines in the southeast under the colonial administration proved to be unprofitable. The Ity Mining Company (Société Minières d'Ity-SMI) was founded in 1984 by the state-owned SODEMI and a French mining company to exploit a deposit discovered 30 years earlier. In this time, total investment was estimated at F1.2 billion CFA. The gold ore was of medium quality, with an 8.5 grams per tonne ratio of gold to ore. Extraction was scheduled to begin in 1987, with a production of 700 kilograms of gold metal expected within the first two years of operation. An additional investment of CFA F2.3 billion has been projected to increase production to 700 kilograms of gold metal per year. In the area of Issia and in the bed of the Lobo River, SODEMI also located gold deposits with anticipated annual yields of 100 kilograms and 25 kilograms, respectively.

In the mid-1970s, low-grade deposits (less than 50%) of iron ore were estimated at 585 million tons in Bangolo, near the Liberian border. A consortium representing Japanese, French, British, American, Dutch, and Ivorian interests was formed to exploit the deposits; however, depressed world prices for iron ore forced the participants to postpone the project indefinitely.

Gold remains one of the most important mineral resources in Côte d'Ivoire, and production has risen considerably over the previous decade, from 12 tonnes in 2011 to more than 25 tonnes in 2017 and 32.5 tonnes in 2019. Five commercial gold mines are located. One is Agbaou, which is located 200 km north-west of Abidjan and was founded in June 2012 by Canadian operator Endeavour Mining.

Mining has an 85 percent interest in the mine and the remaining 15 percent is owned by the government. In late 2013, the first gold was poured and in the first quarter of 2014, commercial operations began. The mine currently has an annual average output capacity of approximately 103,000 oz. and is planned to be operational by 2022, with future expansions currently being considered. Endeavor Mining operates a second gold mine at Ity, where the company has recently completed the construction of a carbon-in-leach facility to increase the operating life of the mine. The company has an 85% stake in the project, while the government holds 10% and the remaining 5% is controlled by the state-owned mining operator, Société pour le Dé veloppement Minier (SODEMI). Ity has already produced 1.2 m oz of gold during its 20 years of operation and is forecast to produce 160,000-200,000 oz in 2019 at around $590 per oz. Located approximately 680 km north of Abidjan and owned by Barrick Gold, Canada, Tongon is one of the largest domestic mining properties, registering 230,000 oz of gold production in 2018. In the first four months of 2018, a 25 percent decline in production from the mine was one of the reasons that national gold output decreased by 3.6 percent that year. This reduction was triggered by worker strike action, which mandated payment incentives and job security assurances, with the latter being called into question by concerns about the long term future of mine. For instance, in August 2019, international media reported that Barrick Gold was looking to sell its 90 percent stake in the mine. As part of a consolidation process following Barrick Gold's merger with Jersey-based Randgold Resources in a $18 billion deal reached in early 2019, the proposed sale was seen as part of a larger effort to unload main mining assets worth $1.5 billion. The government has put a lot of focus on the potential output of these gold mines, and the vice-president, Daniel Kablan Duncan, predicted that annual gold production will double to 50 tons by 2025 during a speech given at the opening of the ECOWAS summit in late 2018. A recent change that could help achieve this goal occurred in October 2019, when a new gold prospecting license was issued to Ivorian Resources, a subsidiary of Australia's Predictive Discovery. The permit, named Bocanda North, covers an area of 400 sq km and straddles the western edge of the Côte d'Ivoire Birimian Greenstone Belt.