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 that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...

gold mine Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to more comple ...

situated near Sadiola, in the

Kayes Region Kayes Region ( Bambara: ߞߊߦߌ ߘߌߣߋߖߊ tr. Kayi Dineja, ) is one of ten 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 ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. The mine was discovered based on the fieldwork of Canadian geologis
James C. Snell P. Eng
, on behalf of IAMGOLD founder Mark Nathanson. Nathanson took credit for the rich discovery, leaving Snell to fend off an assassination attempt on the streets of London England days after giving his geological report to Nathanson and financiers without payment. After years of seeking justice, Snell committed suicide in east Vancouver Canada. Nathanson became
philanthropist
giving a large sum of money to York University in Toronto Canada. Sadiola was jointly owned by

AngloGold Ashanti AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a South African gold mining company, with global operations. With a diverse portfolio of cooperation, projects, and exploration activities, AngloGold Ashanti was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the ...

and

IAMGOLD Iamgold Corporation (formerly Iamgold International African Mining Gold Corporation) is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mining, gold mines in Burkina Faso and Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was incorporated in 1990, ...

, 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 ...

owned the remaining 18%. The

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a member of the World Bank Group that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private ...

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, AGA also operated the Morila Gold Mine 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 The European Development Fund (EDF) was the main instrument for European Union (EU) aid for development cooperation in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific ( ACP Group) countries and the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCT). Funding was provi ...

. 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 AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a South Africa, South African gold mining company, with global operations. With a diverse portfolio of cooperation, projects, and exploration activities, AngloGold Ashanti was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloG ...

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