Small / Medium Scale Gold Mining

Page Mali after discussions with the Malian Government  has embarked in establishing a pilot plant of a Small Scale  Mine in Mali in the year 2004. Operations commenced in  2005 and to date the mine is ready and will commence its gold production very shortly.
Page Corporation wants to assist such countries to unlock their  wealth and improve their standard of living of their people, by combining natural resources to finance such development and western expertise, additionally creating wealth for any such venture.

Due to business set-up rules and formulas, up to now it was very difficult investing in a field that no one exactly in the past had any answers, regarding the establishment of profitable environmental friendly Small to Medium size gold mines anywhere around the world.  They are no such concrete statistics that any business investor can look and draw knowledge or past experience so as to evaluate any new such venture.

Large scale gold mines driven for high profits, mechanize their operations for optimum performance and by doing so their labor intake in to the bare minimum, on the other hand, small scale gold mines are more labor intensive due to their simple methods, therefore offering greater opportunities for employment.
The gold produced by such small operators, from the artisans to some small scale operations (if you can call it that), is estimated in Mali alone to be of 3 metric tones per annum , and this is using very crude and primitive methods by the artisans with very low recovery rate.

Most of the studies and records to date are all based for Large Scale gold mine investments and ventures. For anyone to commence such risky and difficult task is impossible. Local governments do not have the spare available finance to risk in such experiments. A lot of International consultants have undertaken such studies, on their own or on behalf of African or other developing countries, and a lot of theories and assumptions have been recommended, but no one had the vision or the expertise or even the guts to undertake such very risky venture, because it made no business sense. 

The majority of the African development countries had no track records to base their rules or mining codes on and most of them guess such conditions for anyone to proceed for an application for such small scale gold mine, professionally run.
However despite all such odds, Page Corporation and specifically Page Mali, undertook such venture, after examining various factors.
The majority of the African gold producing countries have large international corporations establishing large scale gold mines, and the majority are public trading companies acquiring their funds for such ventures from their share holders (the public).

If any local businessman wishes to develop a small scale gold mine it is impossible, as such finance is not available anywhere in Africa (with the exception of South Africa and other few countries). Therefore such business venture is non achievable. Because of these reasons, Page Mali used its own private funds in undertaking such exercise, after signing with the Malian Government a Protocol agreement for all Mali’s present and possible future Small Scale Gold mine operations (subject to success). If such operation was meant to be proven profitable then Page will lead the way in educating local entrepreneurs in achieving their objectives with Page Mali’s guidance and backing.

Page Mali, while continuing with its exploration programs for a Large Scale Mine operations subject to the favorable results obtained from the studies, undertook the experimentation of a small scale gold mine in its own gold concession South of Bamako, known as the Abaladougou Kenieba Concession.

Operations commenced in 2005 and in late 2008 the first positive results emerged, and with the Malian Government issuing the final exploitation license to Page Mali, full production is anticipated within the next few months. From 2005 to 2008, a lot of adjusting and experimentation has taken place, until the final profitable model emerged.

The new Small / Medium Scale gold mine known as Dabale-1 will answer all the questions that puzzled a number of experts regarding the profitability of a small scale gold mine. Page Mali keeping all its experimental records, and after a few months of production, will be able to prepare a blue print for such small / medium scale gold mines to be used not only in Mali, the rest of Africa and if need be the rest of the world.

Such exercise was costly and has run into a few million US$, but the benefits are now there to see.

Page will continue updating its own site with its progress in this field, from time to time. To be continued.

For further information, please contact PAGE via e-mail info@pagelimited.com or go to our CONTACT PAGE
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