Morila Gold Mine

The Morila Gold Mine (French: Mine d'or de Morila) is an 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 by Firefinch Limited who owns 80%, while the Government of Mali owns the remaining 20%.

Morila
Location
Morila Gold Mine is located in Mali
Morila Gold Mine
Morila Gold Mine
Location in Mali
LocationSanso
RegionSikasso
CountryMali
Coordinates11°40′44.78″N 6°50′59.38″W
Production
Production342,000
Financial year2009
History
Opened2000
Owner
CompanyFirefinch Limited (80%)
Government of Mali (20%)
WebsiteFirefinch website

History

The Morila Gold Mine is one the world’s great open pit gold mines, having produced over 7.5Moz of gold since 2000 at grades that were among the highest in the world, earning it the moniker “Morila the Gorilla”.

Firefinch acquired Morila for just US$28.9m in late 2020 with the strategic intent to rapidly increase production; initially targeting 70-90kozpa of gold from a combination of satellite pits, stocks and tailings, and thereafter growing production to 150-200kozpa of gold by mining the Morila Superpit.

Morila’s current Global Resource is 2.43 million ounces of gold (Measured:  1.73Mt at 0.5g/t gold for 0.03Moz, Indicated: 26.7Mt at 1.49g/t gold for 1.28Moz and Inferred: 22.1Mt at 1.58g/t gold for 1.12Moz). However, Morila’s geological limits have not been tested. Exploration is therefore a major focus at the existing deposits and multiple targets on the 685km2 of surrounding tenure.

Production

Production figures of the recent past were:

Year Production Grade Cost per ounce
2003[1] 794,000 ounces 7.56 g/t US$ 108
2004[1] 510,000 ounces 4.44 g/t US$184
2005[1] 655,000 ounces 5.41 g/t US$191
2006[2] 517,000 ounces 3.88 g/t US$275
2007[3] 450,000 ounces 3.36 g/t US$350
2008[3] 425,000 ounces 3.08 g/t US$419
2009[3] 342,000 ounces 2.47 g/t US$527
2010

References
  1. Annual Report 2005 Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine AngloGold Ashanti website, accessed: 11 July 2010
  2. Annual Report 2006 Archived 2011-07-07 at the Wayback Machine AngloGold Ashanti website, accessed: 11 July 2010
  3. Annual Report 2009 Archived 2011-09-12 at the Wayback Machine AngloGold Ashanti website, accessed: 27 July 2010
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