The production of a gold deposit “world class” in Tanda, in eastern Ivory Coast, will begin in 2028, according to a note from the presidency consulted on Wednesday by AFP. The production of the deposit, discovered in 2022 and named «Sign-Iguéla»is estimated at around 11 tonnes of gold per year, declared Tuesday the general director of Endeavor mining, Ian Cockerill, following an exchange with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in Abidjan. Total production will be 150 tonnes of gold over a 15-year lifespan, he said.
The deposit will create around 4,000 direct and indirect jobs and will be the subject of an investment of 530 billion CFA francs (807 million euros). Endeavor Mining operates two other mines in Ivory Coast, Ity and Lafigué. Nearly 200 people were “slightly intoxicated” at the end of June after eating fish from a river polluted by a leak of cyanide settling water from the Ity mine, according to the Ivorian authorities. Endeavor Mining had denied any “endangerment” des populations.
Subsoil riches
In May, a gold deposit was discovered in the west, constituting the largest in the country to date, announced the Canadian mining group Montage Gold. Appointed “Koné project”its resources are estimated at 155.5 tonnes of gold. In November 2023, the Ivorian Minister of Mines, Oil and Energy, Mamadou Sangafowa Coulibaly, estimated national gold production in 2024 at 55 tonnes, compared to 41.8 tonnes in 2021, a figure already increasing compared to in previous years.
The country also has diamonds, iron, nickel, manganese, bauxite, copper and discovered its first coltan deposit this year. Long focused on agriculture and particularly cocoa production, the Ivorian economy has turned in recent years towards the riches of its subsoil, with the discovery of significant deposits of minerals, oil and gas.
