Guinea. Economic analysis

Mali mineral reserves as of January 2000 are:

N	Mineral	Reserves			Recovery	Extracted in 1998
		Unit of measure	Total	Proved
1.	Iron ores	mln tons	815	431	58%	-
2.	Bauxites	mln tons	980	520	45%	-
3.	Gold	tons	820	388	primary- 39 gr/ton placers- 1,0 gr/m3	23 tons
4.	Manganic ores	mln tons	10	8	42%	-
5.	Diamonds	mln carats	10	-	-	-
6.	Phosphorites	mln tons	25	3	27%	-
7.	Lithium	thousand tons	80,3	-	5%	-
8.	Uranium	thousand tons	100	-	-	-
9.	Kaolin	mln tons	1	-	-	-
10.	Common salt	mln tons	53	-	-	-
11.	Clays	mln tons	7,5	-	-	-
12.	Gypsum	thousand tons	400,8	210	-	-
13.	Limestone	mln tons	22	-	-	-

Oil and gas. On the territory of Mali there are two possible oil-and-gas-bearing fields - Mali-Niger and Taoudenni. Both of them are ill-explored. In present-day Mali there are several regions where foreign companies conducted and still conduct prospecting works. In the Mali-Niger field Soviet specialists executed geologic-geophysical research and mine drillings. In 1987 they detected gas show 60 km north of Bamako city, near Bourakebougou village. The gas occurrence was located on the very south of Taoudenni field composed of Pre-Cambrian carbonate rocks and Paleozoic sand-clay sedimentations. Hydrogen gas of magmatic origin was found in a well here. But when a part of the sedimentary cover was drilled, collecting horizons weren't there, and the obtained information was not enough to jump to any conclusions about the field's possible productivity.

Manganese. The manganese formation of Ansongo belongs to the outcrops of Early Proterozoic spessartite quartzite. Ore bodies are composed of psilomelane, manganous silicates, pyrolusite, barite and quartz. The deposit remains ill-explored. The mineralization was found to go on for 50 meters deep. Total reserves assessed at 10 mln tons.

Bauxites. Mali bauxite formations are situated in the south-west of the country, in the Mandingo plateau. Bauxite formations of Mali, together with those of neighboring Guinea, make up one world's largest bauxite province. Geologically, the structure of all of Mali bauxite regions is very similar. Quartz and feldspar-quartz sandstones with interbeds of chlorite-sericite schist prevail. The rocks lie horizontally; they are intensely intruded by gabbro-diabase sills of Mesozoic age. In the 1960s French geologists discovered 40 bauxite deposits and occurrences, located in 6 different bauxite-bearing regions: East Bamako, West Bamako, Balea, West Bafinge, Kenyeba and Falea. These regions make up bauxite-bearing crust more than 500 km long. Here the most important deposits are: Kaes, Dombia, Gangaran, Koubaya, Sitaouma, Sokorourou, Kourouko, Uro-Nena, Koulala, Kenyelando and Sandam-Bakourou. The deposits are of lateritic nature. A considerable part of bauxites belongs to medium-grade alumina ores meeting all of present-day world market requirements to alumina production. But the majority of the bauxites are characterized by high iron content (Fe₂O₃ - 25-30 %) and can only be categorized as low quality product (less than 40 % of Al₂O₃, more than 10 % of SiO₂). Total bauxite reserves assessed at 980 mln tons, including 520 mln tons of explored reserves, with average Al₂O₃ - 45 %, average SiO₂ - 3 %.

Gold and Diamonds