Modern Mining September 2023

WEST AFRICAN PROJECTS

Cora Gold eager to start Sanankoro project construction Gold exploration and development company, Cora Gold, is chomping at the bit to get its flagship asset, Sanankoro Gold Project, into construction as the miner awaits progress from the Malian Government, which announced a review of its mining laws in November 2022. By Nelendhre Moodley .

Cora Gold CEO Bert Monro.

M ali, one of Africa’s biggest gold producers, recently appointed Amadou Keita as the new mining minister. He replaces Lamine Traore who resigned on 31 May 2023. The govern ment has since been in talks with gold miners over proposed changes to its mining law which could see it boost state and private Malian interests in new projects to 35%, up from 20%, of which a significant amount needs to be paid for by the Government to take up their interest. According to Cora Gold CEO Bert Monro, the company is aligned with the Government’s call for a higher percentage of local employment and is ‘well within the number of local people that we want to employ at our operation’. The West African based company recently com menced with a construction tender process as it focuses on transitioning its flagship Sanankoro Gold Project in south Mali into a producing mine and has also appointed key management ahead of project construction.

Cora Gold initiated the tendering processes for the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) and mine camp and a hybrid power solution, amongst others. The tendering process for contract mining will commence once the Mali Government’s permit moratorium has been lifted. “The Mali Government’s moratorium on reviewing and issuing permits announced on the 28 November 2022 remains in place; at this time. Cora has pre pared its application for the Sanankoro mining permit ready for submission once the moratorium is lifted. Due to the nature of the project layout, the company has been working with the relevant Malian authorities to re-draw various permit boundaries in order to create a 100 km² area for the mining permit. This re-drawing process will be formally completed once the moratorium is lifted. The total area of the five contiguous permits that together make up the Sanankoro Project Area will remain the same follow ing the re-drawing exercise,” explains Monro. Given the importance of mining to Mali, Monro

A view of the recently developed camp site.

feature

18  MODERN MINING  September 2023