West African gold and iron ore - a mining boom in one fifth of
Africa
Gold mines in Mali are an underexploited treasure trove for commodity
investors, the supervisory board chairman of German-listed Pearl Gold told

Reuters in an interview, Mineweb reports. International Mining will publish
a comprehensive review of West African mining in its August issue,
examining
dozens of projects in gold, iron ore and more. All the iron ore majors - such as
ArcelorMittal, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale are
there. Gold projects
abound. “Mali is certainly one of the most promising locations for gold mining
at present,” Robert Goninon said in the
Reuters interview. “Other countries
like Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Ghana offer lucrative
gold mining opportunities too.
Contact john@im-mining.com for more
information.
“Mali’s political stability and legal framework sets it apart
from its neighbours,” he added. Regulation in Mali ensures that both nationals

and non-nationals can exploit deposits under the same conditions — a
privilege not always granted to foreign investors. Pearl Gold, a holding

company listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange at the end of 2010, focuses
on investments in West African exploration and mining corporations,

especially in the field of gold and other precious ls. It already holds
a 25％ stake in Malian company Wassoul’Or S.A, which operates the
Kodieran
mine that it believes to contain about 1.75 Moz of recoverable gold.
“Our
short-term aim is to start industrial-scale gold production in Kodieran,”
Goninon said. Pearl Gold is also eyeing other mines as
acquisition targets,
he said, but declined to name specific mines or companies.
Wassoul’Or was
founded by the respected Malian businessman Aliou Boubacar Diallo to operate the
Wassoul’Or mine. Located in Kodieran, Wassoul’
Or is one of Mali’s promising
mining companies with well developed logistic and infrastructure facilities （300
km gravel roads southeast of
Bamako）. It put in place a pilot plant with a
capacity of 1,000 t/d which was successfully operated for a period of 12 months
in order to optimise
the processing and the commissioning of the effective
production plant of 11,000 t/d which is to be built within the next few months.
The project
is well advanced and has a relatively short time line to
effective production.
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