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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Dam on the Biya at Ayamé
Courtesy Eszti Votaw
Although the subsoil of Côte d'Ivoire contained many
other
minerals, none existed in commercially exploitable
amounts, given
the high costs of extraction. Mining contributed only 1
percent of
GDP in 1986.
During the precolonial era, gold was extracted from
small
shafts dug into the earth or from river and streambeds and
was
traded at the coast or across the Sahara Desert. Efforts
under the
colonial administration to exploit gold deposits at
Kokoumbo in the
center of the country and at small mines in the southeast
proved
unprofitable. In 1984 the state-owned SODEMI and a French
mining
company formed the Ity Mining Company (Société Minières
d'Ity--SMI)
to exploit a deposit discovered thirty years earlier at
Ity near
Danané. Total investment in this period was estimated at
CFA F1.2
billion. The gold ore was of medium quality, with a ratio
of gold
to ore in the range of 8.5 grams per ton. Extraction was
to begin
in 1987, with output anticipated at 700 kilograms of gold
metal
during the first two years of operation. Ity estimated an
additional investment of CFA F2.3 billion to expand output
to 700
kilograms of gold metal a year. SODEMI also located gold
deposits
in the region of Issia and in the Lobo River bed, with
anticipated
annual yields of 100 kilograms and 25 kilograms,
respectively.
In the mid-1970s, low-grade deposits (less than 50
percent) of
iron ore estimated at 585 million tons were assayed at
Bangolo near
the Liberian border. A consortium representing Japanese,
French,
British, American, Dutch, and Ivoirian interests was
formed to
exploit the deposits; however, depressed world prices for
iron ore
forced the participants to postpone the project
indefinitely.
Following World War II, diamond mining seemed
promising, but by
the mid-1980s expectations had waned. The Tortiya diamond
mine,
operating since 1948, peaked in 1972 when 260,000 carats
were
mined. In 1980, however, the mine was closed. The Bobi
mine near
Séguéla produced 270,000 carats per year until the late
1970s; it
was closed in 1979. Remaining reserves for Tortiya were
estimated
at 450,000 carats; for Bobi, 150,000 carats.
Between 1960 and 1966, manganese mines in the region of
GrandLahou on the coast yielded 180,000 tons of ore per year.
In 1970,
after world market prices had dropped and production costs
had
risen, the mines were closed. There were additional
unexploited
managanese deposits near Odienné. Côte d'Ivoire also had
small
deposits of colombo-tantalite, ilmenite, cobalt, copper,
nickel,
and bauxite.
Data as of November 1988
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