The Tasiast gold mine is an open-pit gold mine in

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

, owned and operated by

Kinross Gold Kinross Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based gold mining, gold and silver mining company founded in 1993 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Kinross currently operates six active gold mines, and was ranked fifth of the "10 Top Gold-mining ...

. The mine is located north of the capital of

Nouakchott , image_skyline = Nouakchott.jpg , image_caption = City view of Nouakchott , pushpin_map = Mauritania#Arab world#Africa , pushpin_relief = 1 , mapsize = , map_caption ...

in a

wadi Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water onl ...

called

Khatt Atui Khatt Atui is a wadi in North Africa. This dry riverbed begins near Aousserd in the disputed territory of Western Sahara and runs southwest through the Dakhlet Nouadhibou Region, Dakhlet Nouadhibou and Inchiri Region, Inchiri Regions of Mauritania ...

History

The Tasiast Gold Mine began production in 2008. In 2010, Kinross Gold purchased it as part of a $7.1-billion takeover of

Red Back Mining Red Back Mining Inc. is an unhedged Vancouver based mineral resource company. Its focus is West Africa where it operates the Chirano Gold Project in Ghana and the Tasiast Gold Mine in Mauritania. It has one division, Red Back Mining NL, based in ...

in 2010.

Expansion

Following the purchase, Kinross began an expansion of the mine, which is scheduled to finish in 2014, increasing production from 56,000 ounces per year (as of 2010) to 1.5 million. the expansion project was expected to be $1 billion over budget, but it later got scaled back. Kinross plans to build training facilities in the area, including a School of Mines.

Controversies

In 2015, the company came under fire in the Mauritanian media for allegedly favouring contractors tied to the government; Kinross Gold denied the allegations."Kinross’s clash with contractors over West African gold mines", The Globe and Mail, 04 Oct 2015 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/kinrosss-clash-with-contractors/article26645323/

References

External links

Tasiast mine (MRT-00477)
''Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States website''
Kinross Gold website

Tasiast Project Website
{{Kinross Gold Gold mines in Mauritania Inchiri Region Kinross Gold Surface mines in Mauritania