Gold miners on tenterhooks in Cte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) witnessed a wave of political violence in early December in the wake of a disputed Nov. 28 national election that saw two rivals each claim they’d won the presidency and appoint their own prime ministers and governments. The vote was a run-off after an Oct. 31 vote failed to secure an absolute majority for any candidate.

President Laurent Gbagbo has defied international calls for him to resign and transfer power to his opponent, ex-prime minister Alassane Ouattara, who has been backed as the election winner by the United Nations and the governments of most countries.

Violence during and following the election has left at least 17 people dead, and the broadly pro-Ggagbo Ivorian military has reportedly sealed borders (some of which have reopened), jammed foreign news broadcasts and imposed a night curfew. The United Nations has started evacuating 500 non-essential staffers from the country.

In the capital Abidjan, Ggagbo’s regime remains in control of the government buildings, while Ouattara’s erstwhile government is holed up in a hotel, surrounded by United Nations troops, who number 10,000 in the country.

The standoff has sparked fears of another civil war in the former French colony, which was once a model of stability in Africa. The country is still split in two after the 2002-04 war, which left the north under rebel control and the south in the traditional government’s hands. Exacerbating these divisions, Ggagbo won the most votes in Abidjan in the south, while Ouattara is the rebel area’s top choice.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki travelled to Ivory Coast on Dec. 5 on behalf of the African Union in an attempt to mediate a resolution. He held talks with both parties over two days before departing. U.S. President Barack Obama unsuccessfully tried to reach Ggagbo by phone, and sent a letter instead, asking him to step down and inviting him to visit the White House. Ggagbo’s camp did not respond, other than to acknowledge the letter’s receipt.

Australia’s largest gold miner, Newcrest Mining, announced it had suspended operations at its Bonikro gold mine in Ivory Coast in early December owing to the political unrest. The mine, located 250 km northwest of Abidjan, produces about 120,000 oz. gold annually and employs 800, of whom about 100 are expatriates.

Newcrest said it’s ready to restart mining as soon as possible if the situation improves, but at the same time has prepared evacuation plans if things deteriorate further.

Newcrest picked up Bonikro though its US$11.3-billion acquisition of Lihir Gold earlier this year. Lihir had only bought the mine in 2008 with its A$1.1-billion takeover of Equigold.

At the same time, Geoff Day, Newcrest’s chief operating officer for offshore, was telling reporters at a conference in Melbourne that the company is looking to at least double Bonikro’s output. Bloomberg reported Day as saying that “you’d have to think it would be in the order of 300,000-500,000 ounces. That would be something where you can say you can support a country presence.”

Veteran African gold miner Randgold Resources said it was monitoring the political situation closely, and was still in production – albeit with reduced staffing levels – at its Tongon gold mine in the north of the country, some 55 km south of the border with Mali. The recently commissioned Tongon mine poured its first gold on Nov. 8 and boasts a resource of 4 million oz. gold.

Paris-based La Mancha Resources reported on Dec. 8 that operations were continuing at its Ity gold mine. Ity is located in the country’s western Zouan Hounien region, which La Mancha says has “remained calm since the start of the election process” and thus is allowing for operations to continue, even though business hours were shortened owing to the curfew.

However, La Mancha is suspending all exploration activity in the country and further states that “limited road circulation in the country remains the main risk” to Ity’s operations, as most consumables used on site are trucked from Abidjan.

Overall, La Mancha still expects to reach its company-wide production goal for 2010 of about 130,000 oz. gold, of which 15% is produced at the Ity mine and the rest from three mines in the Sudan and Australia.

London’s Cluff Gold similarly announced that production its Angovia gold mine in Ivory Coast was uninterrupted, with the mine expected to crank out 40,000 oz. gold this year, or about 40% of the company’s total.

Cluff told Reuters on Dec. 6 that the country’s borders had reopened and a cement delivery has arrived at the mine, adding that, “If the borders were closed again we probably have got at least a month or maybe six weeks supply.”

Other mining companies with early-stage projects in the country include: Endeavour Mining, with four exploration permits and other applications pending in several other gold belts outside of Agbaou; Perseus Mining, with its active Tengrela high-grade gold project; and Sama Resources, with its Samapleau nickel-copper project.

Ivory Coast is one of the world’s great cocoa producers, and Minneapolis-based food giant Cargill reported its cocoa deliveries were “experiencing some challenges.”