By Sherilee Lakmidas
JOHANNESBURG, April 4 (Reuters) – Gold companies with mines
in Mali are playing down the risk of border closures and fallout
from sanctions imposed on the West African nation after a coup
last month.
Randgold Resources, Mali’s largest investor, and
Africa’s largest gold producer, AngloGold Ashanti, said
on Wednesday it had enough supplies of fuel to sit out any
immediate changes in the way it does business.
“There is no revolution and there is no conflict so there is
no threat to life or limb,” Randgold Resources Chief Executive
Mark Bristow told Reuters.
Bristow said the company, which sources two-thirds of its
gold from Mali, had no problem bringing in fuel and shipping
gold despite border closures by the 15-state Economic Community
of West African States designed to squeeze Mali’s economy.
“Those sanctions haven’t all been applied yet. They are
being applied, I believe, but we are still shipping fuel and
goods through some of the borders,” Bristow said.
Randgold had 440,000 litres of diesel delivered on Tuesday
night, giving its Loulo complex about 12 days’ supply and its
Morila mine around 14 days of fuel.
The company’s London-listed shares have dropped 20 percent
since soldiers seized power in Mali on March 22, suggesting that
investors are worried over the potential risk of disruption as a
result of the political situation.
Morila, a joint venture with AngloGold, is 280 km (170
miles) southeast of Bamako, and Loulo sits in the west of Mali,
bordering Senegal, 350 kilometres west of Bamako.
Continued…
