[miningmx.com] — Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland has said the company wanted to continue its exploration activities in Mali, despite last week’s military coup, Reuters reported on Monday.
“We’ll have to see what happens. We’ve suspended our drilling activities for the moment. All of our people are safe and accounted for, so there’s no immediate issue,” Nick Holland said at the Reuters Global Mining and Metals Summit.
The Gold Fields Yanfolila exploration project is in the southwest corner of the country, far from the rebels, but Holland said drilling had been suspended “out of an abundance of caution” and the company could reboot the operation in a day or two.
“It’s certainly a place where we are encouraged to continue operations … we like the deposits that we are operating there,” Holland told the summit at Reuters’ Johannesburg office.
“I’m hopeful we’ll have this (the coup situation) resolved soon.”
