Mining industry of Ivory Coast

During the precolonial era, gold was extracted from small shafts dug into the earth or from river and stream beds and was traded at the coast or across the Sahara Desert.

Efforts under the colonial administration to exploit gold deposits at Kokoumbo in the center of the country and at small mines in the southeast proved unprofitable.

Ity estimated an additional investment of CFA F2.3 billion to expand output to 700 kilograms of gold metal a year.

[1][3] In the mid-1970s, low-grade deposits (less than 50 percent) of iron ore estimated at 585 million tons were assayed at Bangolo near the Liberian border.

A consortium representing Japanese, French, British, American, Dutch, and Ivoirian interests was formed to exploit the deposits; however, depressed world prices for iron ore forced the participants to postpone the project indefinitely.

[1] As part of the Ivorian government’s strategic action plan to diversify the country's economic output, mining activities over the last decade have been steadily increasing.

[4] The government aims to make mining the second largest driver of growth in the Ivorian economy, after agriculture, with a target of 8% of the GDP by 2030.