Mali industrial gold output on track to beat forecast, says ministry

The Fekola gold mine. (Image courtesy of B2Gold)

Industrial gold production in Mali, one of Africa’s top producers of the precious metal, is expected to beat the 60.5 tonnes forecast for 2021, a mines ministry official said on Tuesday.

Gold production from the 13 mines operated by major miners including Barrick Gold, B2Gold, Resolute Mining and AngloGold Ashanti stood at 47.1 tonnes by the end of September, the ministry said.

“At the end of September industrial gold production stood at 47.1 tonnes, 2.6 tonnes more than the initial forecast for September, which was 44.5 tonnes,” said Mamadou Sidibe, head of the mines ministry’s audit and statistics department.

“With this trend we are sure that the forecast for the year will be reached or even exceeded,” Sidibe said, adding that strong production was usually expected during the last quarter of the year.

Mali’s industrial gold production in 2020 totalled 65.2 tonnes.

(By Tiemoko Diallo and Bate Felix; Editing by David Goodman)

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