This excursion to some of the spectacular gold occurrences on the West African shield in western Mali is supported by Randgold Resources and focuses on their gold mining operations in the Loulo-Gounkoto area.

http://www.randgoldresources.com/loulo-gounkoto-mining-complex

From Bamako, a chartered flight will take delegates to the Loulo-Gounkoto complex. The tourmatized greywacke with quartz carbonate orebody will be visited at the Gara underground operation.  At the Yalea operation, reactivated mineralisation in typical orogenic shear zone hosted in greywackes will be inspected. At Gounkoto where the deposit with six million ounces at 5g/t discovered in 2009 was first mined in 2012, the sites exhibits a good expoloration case history. The site visits will include geological descriptions, core inspection and visits to the opencast pits.

Field Trip Leader: Randgold Resources                                          
Start/end: Bamako, Mali
Date: 4 days, TBA                                                                
Price: TBA