The Société d'Exploitation des Mines d'Or de Sadiola S.A (SEMOS) project is an

open-pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of mining ...

gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: * Gold Mine (board game) *Gold Mine (Long Beach), an arena *"Gold Mine", a song by Joyner Lucas from the 2020 album ''ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characteri ...

situated near

Sadiola Sadiola is a ''commune'' and small town in western Mali, south of Kayes. The ''commune'' includes 46 villages and in 2009 had a population of 39,305. Sadiola has two large open cast gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: * Gold Mine (board game) *G ...

, in the

Kayes Region Kayes Region ( Bambara: ߞߊߦߌ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Kayi Dineja) is one of eight first level national subdivisions in Mali called Regions. It is the first administrative area of Mali and covers an area of . Its capital is the town of Kayes. The p ...

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

. The operation was jointly owned by

AngloGold Ashanti AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold mining company. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. It is now a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents. The company is listed ...

and IAMGOLD, who each had an effective holding of 41%, while the

Government of Mali Until the military coup of March 22, 2012 and a second military coup in December 2012 the politics of Mali took place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Mali is head of state with a ...

owned the remaining 18%. The

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of t ...

originally held 6% of the mine put sold this share equally to AGA and IAMGOLD in December 2009. Apart from Sadiola and the nearby

Yatela Mine The Yatela Mine is an open-pit gold mine situated near Yatela, 25 km north of Sadiola, in the Kayes Region of Mali. It is a single-pit operation. Commencing operation in 2001, heap leaching together with carbon-loading is carried out at a ra ...

, AGA also operated the

Morila Gold Mine The Morila Gold Mine is an open-pit mining, open-pit gold mine situated 180 km south of Bamako, near the community of Sanso, in the Sikasso Region of Mali. The operation is jointly owned bFirefinch Limitedwho owns 80%, while the Government o ...

in Mali. The production of its mines in Mali contributed 8% to the company's overall production in 2008.

History

Mining in this region of Mali, according to old workings, dates back at least 1,000 years and written records confirm that small scale mining was carried out there for most of the past 300 years. From 1987 onward, the Government of Mali carried out exploration activities in the area, funded by the

European Development Fund Global Europe, officially the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), is the financial arm of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, which provides funding for the European Neighbourhoo ...

. Non-government mining exploration in the area began in 1990 with the Société d'Exploitation des Mines d'Or de Sadiola (SEMOS) project by a predecessor company of the Canadian mid-tier mining company IAMGOLD, and, in 1992 Anglo American entered into a joint venture with IAMGOLD to develop the project. Anglo American eventually transferred its rights to AngloGold, which, in 2004, became AngloGold Ashanti Ltd (AGA). Development of the mine began in 1994 and it opened in 1996. In 2009, SEMOS employed just over 1,500 people. The development of the mine was however not seen as a positive project by all, as local farmers complained that they had not been adequately compensated for loss of land or loss of cattle poisoned from a cyanide spill. Clean drinking water for livestock in the area, however, gets pumped from boreholes within the mine. Electricity is also provided by SEMOS free of charge to the local village (Sadiola). Further exploration drilling took place in the area surrounding Sadiola, and new pits were developed. Sadiola mining

The mine was jointly owned by AGA (41%), IAMGOLD (41%) and the Government of Mali(18%), and operated by AGA until December 2020. Allied Gold Corp (AGC), a private company, bought out IAMGOLD & AGA interests in the SEMOS project (80%) and now operates the mine with the Republic of Mali now owning (20%).

Production

Production figures of the recent past were:
* grams per tonne (g/t) of milled ore

** TCC total cash cost

*** AISC all-in sustainable costs as per the 2013 Word Gold Council's formal guidelines metric

References

External links

AngloGold Ashanti website

IAMGOLD website

THE SADIOLA HILL GOLD PROJECT
''

website''
Sadiola mine (MLI-00035)
''Secretariat of the

African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States The Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) is a group of countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975. Formerly known as African, Caribbean and Pacific Group ...

website'' {{AngloGold Ashanti Gold mines in Mali Surface mines in Mali AngloGold Ashanti Kayes Region 1996 establishments in Mali