Gold In Burkino Faso

As a continent, Africa, known as the dark continent, has been blessed with resources beyond belief. Whether it's oil in Lybia or Nigeria, South Africa rich with gold and diamonds along with other minerals, Africa is a country to be explored. In fact the city of Johannesburg is known as being a city built on gold. One of the richest gold belts in the world is the prolific greenstone belt in Tanzania where major companies like Anglo and Barrick have some of the world largest gold mines. In this article however we are going to take a look at a smaller country that is seeing some major developements in the gold mining sector.

Burkino Faso is a smaller landlocked country in the upper western portion of Africa itself. It is also one of the poorest countries in Africa if not the world where the majority of the people live of subsistance farming. The country has over the years has seen it's share of civil strife and frustration in issues with politics. Being under french rule for a considerable length of time, it became a nation run by military and dictators since the 1960's. Most recently, President Blaise Compaore ruled Burkina Faso from a coup in 1987 until he lost power in 2014. In November 2014 opposition parties, civil society groups and religious leaders adopted a plan for a transitional authority to guide Burkina Faso to elections. Under the plan Michel Kafando was made the transitional President of Burkina Faso. Since that time the new government has been working on getting foreign investments and looking forward to progressive developments in the country.

Of all the resources Burkino Faso has, gold is the number one export. Infact it is almost half of the countries monetary exports followed by cotton. The country is the fastest growing gold producer in Africa. It is ranked 4th in the continent and 23rd worldwide in Current Mineral Potential Index in the Survey of Mining Companies 2014 conducted by The Fraser Institute of Canada. Some of the world's most productive mines are located in West African greenstone belts. These belts cover approximately 3, 000, 000 km, making the area's exploration potential enormous. Burkina Faso currently accounts for 21% of West Africa's greenstone belt exposure. Since 2013, there are seven gold mines in production. So it would only be natural for a new government to capitalize on it's number one export and open it's borders to outside companies to help it develope these resources. So far the idea has worked well. There has always been foreign mining companies working in the country and those companies have been able to explore and today there are several large mines producing gold. These companies are of course always looking to expand and they can do that by either doing more exploration on their own, or they can buy out a junior who has been developing property in their area of interest.

A few examples of the what is happening in the M&A side in the country at present took place in February of 2015 when Semafo SMF bought out Australian miner Orbis Gold in a A$.713 all share deal. In March of 2016 Endeavor EDV took over True Gold in an all share deal at C$.057. Also in April, 2016 Endeavor announces it will start construction of a C$328 million gold mine which will produce 235,000 ounces for 10 years.

Burkino Faso is the 4th largest gold producer in Africa but is one of the fastest growing when it comes to exploration and mine developement. You can see from the list below the number of mines in the country alongwith their market cap. Make special note of the Bouboulou Project of Nexus Gold which is one of the newest entrances into this country.

• Hounde Mine Endeavor (EDV.T) $22.00 $2B market cap
• Mana Mine Samafo (SMF.T) $6.15 $2B market cap
• Yaramoko Mine Roxgold (ROG.V) $1.60 $600M market cap
• Banfora Deposit Teranga (TGZ.T) $1.00 $420m market cap
• Bombore Deposit Orezone (ORE.V) $1.00 $125M market cap
• Hounde Project Sarama (SWA.V) $0.20 $25M market cap
• Bouboulou Project Nexus Gold (NXS.V) $0.05 $3M market cap

With all that is happening in this country with both a new government and economic reforms and seeing the gold price inch higher bit by bit everyday, place like Burkino Faso offer a good starting point to many small junior mining companies. Because the economy is still young and not over inflated, costs such as labour and drilling can be kept to a minimum allowing more raised money to go that much further.

Smaller companies like Nexus Gold NXS which is one of our featured miners has a property in Burkino Faso called the Bouboulou gold concession. This property covers an area of 38.3 square kilometers and is located approximately 100 kilometers north by northwest of the capital city of Ouagadougou. Exploration on the property has been conducted by Boliden (1997 - 1999), Riverstone Resources (2005- 2011) and Roxgold Inc. (2011 to 2012). Four zones of gold mineralization have been identified on the property and previous exploration programs includes surface rock sampling and trenching returning gold grades from 1.09 to 19.16 g/t gold. This year Nexus has reviewed data and completed most of the geochem work and is prepping to start an aggresive drilling campaign. The company has contracted Falcon Drilling which already has rigs in the country and is very familiar with drilling in this area.

One of the key points of this exploration program by Nexus is the fact that their chief geologist was the same person who did the NI 43-101 for Roxgold which is working right next door on a neigboring property. Having a key person on staff who already knows the area and what to expect and where to drill can save a lot of money and time in the end.

So if you are looking for a little investing excitement in the junior mining sector, maybe take a look and follow along with the miners that are working and exploring Burkino Faso and to read a quick report of Nexus Gold, Click Here.

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