Resolute Bets $530 Million on Côte d’Ivoire Gold Find

Resolute Mining has drilled into what it says is a 100-tonne gold reserve at the Doropo project in Côte d’Ivoire, a discovery large enough to anchor a $530 million mine and tilt the West-Australian company’s production centre of gravity toward West Africa. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2026; first pours are pencilled in for 2028.

The Doropo lease, acquired from AngloGold Ashanti in May along with the neighbouring ABC exploration blocks for an upfront $150 million, already carries a definitive feasibility study that modelled annual output of 167,000 oz. at all-in sustaining costs of about $1,050 an ounce.

Resolute chief executive Chris Eger told reporters the new drilling campaign “materially extends” the reserve base and underpins a 20-year mine life; official figures will follow a revised study early next year.

Financing and scale
The Perth-listed miner expects to fund most of the 300 billion CFA-franc capex (about $530 million) from its balance-sheet liquidity and a revolving credit line set to close this quarter, according to an April investor slide deck.

A separate $204 million exploration budget will test additional satellite targets along the Burkina Faso border.

Doropo would become Côte d’Ivoire’s second world-class greenfield gold project in as many years. Toronto-listed Montage Gold broke ground on the 155-tonne Koné project in 2024, with production slated for 2027.

Prime Minister Robert Beugré Mambé said at the Doropo signing ceremony that the project marks “a strategic breakthrough” and could lift the country into the continent’s top tier of gold producers now dominated by Ghana, South Africa and Mali.

Resolute forecasts more than 3,000 direct jobs once mining begins. The Bounkani region, where 71 percent of residents live on less than 1,000 CFA francs ($1.76) a day, also expects road, school and hospital upgrades tied to the development package. Illegal artisanal mining, rife in the area, is a risk the company says it will manage with local security forces and community programmes.

For Resolute, which already operates the Syama underground mine in Mali and the Mako open pit in Senegal, Doropo is the centrepiece of a plan to lift group production above 500,000 oz. a year within three years. Analysts value the deal at roughly $37 per resource ounce, inside the prevailing West-African range of $30–$50 paid for advanced projects.