Morila

Location
Morila Gold Mine Location in Mali
Location	Sanso
Region	Sikasso
Country	Mali
Coordinates	11°40′44.78″N 6°50′59.38″W / 11.6791056°N 6.8498278°W / 11.6791056; -6.8498278
Production
Production	342,000
Financial year	2009
History
Opened	2000
Owner
Company	Firefinch Limited (80%) Government of Mali (20%)
Website	Firefinch website

The Morila Gold Mine (French: Mine d'or de Morila) is an open-pit gold mine situated 180 km south of Bamako, near the community of Sanso, in the Sikasso Region of Mali. The operation is jointly owned by Firefinch Limited who owns 80%, while the Government of Mali owns the remaining 20%.

The Morila Gold Mine is one the world’s great open pit gold mines, having produced over 7.5Moz of gold since 2000 at grades that were among the highest in the world, earning it the moniker “Morila the Gorilla”.

Firefinch acquired Morila for just US$28.9m in late 2020 with the strategic intent to rapidly increase production; initially targeting 70-90kozpa of gold from a combination of satellite pits, stocks and tailings, and thereafter growing production to 150-200kozpa of gold by mining the Morila Superpit.

Morila’s current Global Resource is 2.43 million ounces of gold (Measured:  1.73Mt at 0.5g/t gold for 0.03Moz, Indicated: 26.7Mt at 1.49g/t gold for 1.28Moz and Inferred: 22.1Mt at 1.58g/t gold for 1.12Moz). However, Morila’s geological limits have not been tested. Exploration is therefore a major focus at the existing deposits and multiple targets on the 685 km² of surrounding tenure.

Production figures of the recent past were:

• AngloGold Ashanti website
• Randgold website
• Morila mine (MLI-00122) Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States website
• Morila Gold Mine description ICMM website