The project 470 km northwest of coastal Abidjan, the West African country’s largest city, has a net present value of $1.1 billion at a 5% discount rate with a 31% internal rate of return.

The disruption comes as Transnet struggles to improve its performance, particularly on the line that transports coal from mines in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province to the Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

Chinese-owned companies are aggressively expanding cobalt mining in Congo and Indonesia despite the price drop.

Barrick CEO Bristow said it was unrealistic for every country to expect they can participate fully in the industry’s four main sectors.

Centamin plans to connect to the country’s electrical grid and company solar panels this year.

“Everybody's been knocking on our door, trying to understand what we are doing, trying to see how we did it,” Marna Cloete said.

Gem Diamonds has unearthed a 295-carat rough at its Letšeng mine in Lesotho, while Lucara recovered a 166-carat rough at Letšeng in Botswana.

The Canadian precious metals miner has paid down an additional $41 million in debt using cash on hand.