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  • Mali Concludes Gold Mine Nationalisation Deal

    Thu Oct 24 2024

    The nationalisation of the Yatela mine in the western Kayes region puts an end to lengthy negotiations that began before the junta seized power in a 2020 coup. The Malian government led by Colonel Assimi Goita on Wednesday passed a decree approving the state’s purchase of shares in the mining company held by South African company AngloGold Ashanti and Canada’s Iamgold. Each firm previously held a 40-percent stake, while the Malian state-owned the remaining 20 percent, the Council of Ministers wrote in a statement.

    Operations at the mine, which had been producing since 2001, ceased in 2016 after a sudden plunge in the price of gold. Besides plummeting gold prices at the time, AngloGold cited smaller profit margins and miner safety issues when it announced the mine’s closure.

    Yet the government said its “reserves are not completely exhausted”. Iamgold and AngloGold will give up the mine for a “symbolic franc”, economy minister Alousseni Sanou said when signing the deal. The Malian state will receive $36 million for the closure and rehabilitation of the mine as well as 2.5 billion CFA francs ($4.1 million) paid to the treasury, he added.

    “The mine has great potential,” Sanou said. It will be transferred to the state-owned Mali Mineral Resources Research and Development Corporation, which was created by the junta in 2022 to ensure that “gold shines more for all Malians”. When they took over, Mali’s military leaders vowed to strengthen the sovereignty of the nation, which is plagued by jihadist violence and economic downturn. State television presented the sale as an assertion of Malian control over the country’s resource riches.

    The junta has promised a fairer distribution of revenue from the foreign-dominated mining industry in Mali, a leading gold producer in Africa. In May, Australian group Firefinch said it would transfer all its shares in the Morila gold mine to Sorem for one dollar, as well as all its mining rights in Mali, also for one dollar.

     

    Source: https://www.channelstv.com/

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