Editing Economy of Mali (section)

== Mining and resources ==
[[File:Le Mali cherche à développer ses réserves pétrolières (6046081150).jpg|thumb|Drilling for oil in the [[Taoudeni basin]]]]
Mining has long been an important aspect of the Malian economy. Gold, the largest source of Malian exports,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/mli/|title=OEC - Mali (MLI) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners|website=atlas.media.mit.edu|language=en|access-date=2019-02-06}}</ref> is still mined in the southern region and at the end of the 20th century Mali had the third highest gold production in Africa (after South Africa and [[Ghana]]).<ref name=Goldenhope>{{cite news | first=Briony | last=Hale | title=Mali's Golden Hope | date=1998-05-13 | publisher=BBC | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1945588.stm | work =[[BBC News]] | access-date = 2008-06-04 }}</ref> These goldfields, the largest of which lie in the [[Bambouk Mountains]] in western Mali ([[Kenieba Cercle]]), were a major source of wealth and trade as far back as the [[Ghana Empire]].

[[Salt mining]] in the far north, especially in the Saharan oases of [[Taoudenni]] and [[Taghaza]] have been a crucial part of the Malian economy for at least seven hundred years.  Both resources were vital components of the [[Trans-Saharan trade]], stretching back to the time of the [[Roman Empire]].

From the 1960s to the 1990s state owned mining—especially for gold—expanded, followed by a period of expansion by international contract mining.

In 1991, following the lead of the [[International Development Association]], Mali relaxed the enforcement of mining codes which led to greater foreign investment in the mining industry.<ref>Campbell, Bonnie (2004). Regulating Mining in Africa: For Whose Benefit?. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic African Institute. {{ISBN|978-0-7614-7571-2}}.  p. 43.</ref> From 1994 to 2007, national and foreign companies were granted around 150 operating licences along with more than 25 certificates for exploitation and more than 200 research permits. Gold mining in Mali has increased dramatically, with more than 50 tonnes in 2007 from less than half a tonne produced annually at the end of the 1980s. Mining revenue totaled some 300 billion CFA francs in 2007 more than a thirty times increase from the 1995 total national mining revenue of less than 10 billion CFA. Government revenues from mining contracts, less than 1% of the state income in 1989 were almost 18% in 2007.<ref>Moussa K. Traoré. [http://allafrica.com/stories/printable/200810310724.html Extractive Industries And Their Socio-Economic Impacts], (tran. ''Les impacts économiques et sociaux des industries extractives'', Pambazuka News #73, 2008) Fahamu: 30 October 2008</ref>

===Gold===
In 2019, the country was the 16th largest world producer of [[gold]].<ref>[https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2021/mcs2021-gold.pdf USGS Gold Production Statistics]</ref> 

Gold accounted for some 80% of mining activity in the mid-2000s, while there remained considerable proven reserves of other minerals not currently exploited. Gold has become Mali's largest export,<ref name=":0" /> after cotton—historically the basis of Mali's export industry—and livestock. The emergence of gold as Mali's leading export product since 1999 has helped mitigate some of the negative impacts caused by fluctuations in world cotton markets and loss of trade from the [[First Ivorian Civil War|Ivorian Civil War]] to the south.<ref>African Development Bank (2001). African Economic Outlook. OECD Publishing. {{ISBN|92-64-19704-4}}. p. 186.</ref>  Large private investments in gold mining include  Anglogold-Ashanti ($250 million) in [[Sadiola Gold Mine|Sadiola]] and [[Yatela Mine|Yatela]], and [[Randgold Resources]] ($140 million) in [[Morila Gold Mine|Morila]] – both multinational South African companies located respectively in the north-western and southern parts of the country.

====Social and environmental impacts====
While great incomes are produced, most staff employed in the mining industries are from outside Mali, and residents in the areas of intensive mining complain of little benefit from the industry.  Populations complain of displacement for the construction of mines: at [[Sadiola Gold Mine]], 43 villages have lost some land to the mine there, while in [[Fourou]], near the large Syama goldmines, 121 villages saw some displacement.<ref>Moussa K. Traoré (2008)</ref>

In addition, the continued exploitation of unregulated small scale mining, often by child laborers, supplies a large international gold market in [[Bamako]] which feeds into international production.<ref name="report">{{Cite web |last=Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information |first=Bureau of Public Affairs |date=2007-03-06 |title=Mali |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78745.htm |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=2001-2009.state.gov |language=en}}</ref> Recent criticism has surfaced around the working conditions, pay, and the widespread use of child labor in these small gold mines (as reported recently in the [[U.S. Department of Labor]]'s ''[[List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor]]''),<ref>[http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/list-of-goods/ List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of Labor]</ref><ref>[http://www.dol.gov/ilab/reports/child-labor/mali.htm Mali, 2013 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor]</ref> and the method with which middlemen, in regional centers like [[Sikasso]] and [[Kayes]], purchase and transport gold.  Gold collected in the towns is sold on—with almost no regulation or oversight—to larger merchant houses in [[Bamako]] or [[Conakry]], and eventually to smelters in Europe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AP IMPACT: Kids working in African gold mines - USATODAY.com |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-08-10-104690609_x.htm |access-date=2025-04-21 |website=usatoday30.usatoday.com}}</ref> Ecological factors, especially pollution of water by mine tailings, is a major source of concern.

===Other minerals===
Other mining operations include [[kaolin]], [[salt]], [[phosphate]], and [[limestone]].<ref name="state">{{cite web|title=Mali|url=https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2828.htm |access-date=2008-06-04}}</ref> The government is trying to generate interest in the potential of extracting petroleum from the [[Taoudeni basin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.africacncl.org/events/downloads/mr.%20max%20de%20vietri,%20baraka%20petroleum.pdf|title=Mali – A Developing Oil and Gas IndustryA Industry|publisher=The Corporate Council on Africa|date=2006-12-01|access-date=2009-03-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318043512/http://www.africacncl.org/events/downloads/mr.%20max%20de%20vietri,%20baraka%20petroleum.pdf|archive-date=2009-03-18|url-status=dead}}</ref>