{"id":1108289,"date":"2019-03-29T19:28:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T19:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=978930"},"modified":"2019-03-29T19:28:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T19:28:27","slug":"west-africa-an-emerging-gold-exploration-investment-hotspot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1108289","title":{"rendered":"West Africa \u2014 an emerging gold exploration investment hotspot"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Africa is well endowed with mineral resources, and many world-class deposits have been discovered there in recent years. The region is a key source of gold, iron ore, bauxite, diamonds, phosphate, uranium, and its mainly untapped mineral wealth provides exceptional greenfield development potential.<\/p>\n

But despite increased interest in the whole spectrum of commodities in West Africa, the region is a hotspot for investment in gold exploration.<\/a><\/p>\n

Foreign companies invested billions of dollars in gold exploration activities over the past few years, resulting in West Africa having the biggest growth rate in the yellow metal\u2019s resources in the world.<\/p>\n

Data compiled from Mining Intelligence\u2019s<\/em> proprietary database demonstrates the number of gold asset changes within West Africa\u2019s mining development pipeline.<\/p>\n

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West Africa\u2019s mining development pipeline: Number of mining\/explorations projects at different stages of development. Source: Mining Intelligence<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Moving down the pipeline from operating mines to exploration projects, the number of gold assets increases, with 61 assets (33% of all assets, regardless of commodity) in the production or construction stages, 24 assets, or 45% of all projects undergoing economic assessment studies, and a whopping 367 assets in the exploration phase.<\/p>\n

74% of all exploration projects are focused on gold.<\/p>\n

This focus on gold in the exploration stage indicates that the importance of gold in West Africa\u2019s mining sector will only increase in the future, as new projects will enter the production phase.<\/p>\n

Experts are confident that significant local gold resources were underexplored, and this can spark even more interest from the international mining community.<\/p>\n

Recent gold production numbers show that South Africa was still the biggest gold producer in the region in 2017, but West Africa\u2019s gold mining industry, led by Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, already produces nearly twice as much gold as South Africa, and Ghana alone has chances to overtake its struggling southern peers in gold output in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gold production, South Africa vs. West Africa, Mozt. Source: Mining Intelligence, based on companies\u2019 reports; artisanal miners and non-reporting companies are excluded.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another important indicator of West Africa\u2019s gold mining sector enticement for investors is production costs measured by the World Gold Council\u2019s all-in sustaining costs (AISC) metrics. AISC shows that in Q2 2018, two West Africa mines were in the global list of top 6 lowest cost gold operations.<\/p>\n

B2Gold\u2019s new open-pit high-grade Fekola mine in Mali was the second lowest cost mine by AISC ($445\/ozt), and Perseus Mining\u2019s new SGP mine in Ivory Coast was sixth ($520\/ozt).<\/p>\n

With South Africa\u2019s gold mining sector struggling with increased production costs at underground mines, socio-political turmoil and regulatory headwinds, West Africa is quickly becoming the continent\u2019s main gold mining hub.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lowest cost gold mines by AISC in Q2 2018. Source: Mining Intelligence<\/em>, based on companies\u2019 reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Get access<\/a><\/em> to the wealth of data about mineral resources in West Africa and globally, and click <\/em>here<\/a><\/em> for Mining Intelligence’s 2018 Western Africa Mining Map that shows the locations of more than 180 producing mines and development \u201cshovel in the ground\u201d projects, 20 metallurgical facilities, major roads, railroads, ports and shipping distances and regional geology. For other Mining Intelligence maps, click <\/em>here<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post West Africa \u2014 an emerging gold exploration investment hotspot<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data shows West Africa has the biggest growth rate in the yellow metal’s resources in the world.<\/p>\n

The post West Africa — an emerging gold exploration investment hotspot<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1002,585,404,369,2183],"tags":[9,47,48,294],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1108289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108325,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1108289\/revisions\/1108325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1108289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1108289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1108289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}