Gold deposits at Moto were initially discovered in 1903 and mining began in 1905. A colonial state corporation called Kilo-Moto exploited the deposits from 1905 to 1919. The colonial state recruited laborers from rural Africa to work in the mines. In 1919, Kilo-Moto became organized as an autonomous colonial state corporation with a Board of Directors in Brussels appointed by the Minister of the colonies. This company operated as a private corporation starting in 1926 and survived the handover to independent Congolese rule in 1961, but was taken over by the Zairian state in 1967. The archives of the company up to 1967 are still stored in Brussels.
Moto Goldmines Limited was a
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
exploration and
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
company with operations in the
Kilo-Moto
Kilo-Moto is a region in the far northeast corner of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where gold was discovered in the Ituri River by government prospectors in 1903. Moto is in the Haut-Uélé Province and Kilo in the Ituri Province.
Loc ...
greenstone belt in
Haut-Uele Province in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The company's
stock
In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...
was listed on the
Toronto Stock Exchange
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...
and the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
’s
Alternative Investment Market
AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...
.
Moto Goldmines was acquired by
Randgold Resources
Randgold Resources is a gold mining business operating mainly in Mali. Headquartered in Jersey, Channel Islands, it was listed on the London and the NASDAQ stock exchanges until it merged with Barrick Gold in December 2018.
History
The company w ...
in 2009,
which subsequently merged with
Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Corporation is a mining company that produces gold and copper with 16 operating sites in 13 countries. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It has mining operations in Argentina, Canada, Chile, Côte d'Ivoire, Democrati ...
in December 2018.
The joint venture developed the
Kibali Gold Mine
The Kibali Gold Mine is a combined open pit and underground gold mine in the Haut-Uélé province of the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo. By area, it is one of the largest in Africa. The mine is named for the nearby Kibali River.
Loc ...
.
References
External links
*
The Gold Mines of Kilo and Moto
Gold mining companies of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ituri
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