Gold miner Resolute Mining has seen its share price decline more than -7% heading towards lunchtime trades on Friday after it flagged a deteriorating security situation in the troubled West African nation of Mali.
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At the time of writing, shares were down -7.74% on Friday on the back of $3.13M worth of shares trading hands. The downward movement effectively brings Resolute back to where it was six months ago after gains through February to late April.
The catalyst driving the price down is that Q2 production at the company’s Syama gold project has been hurt by “logistical and supply chain disruptions” including a shortage of explosives used in blasting.
“In the underground operations, grades have been lower than expected due to intermittent blasting performance and temporary disruption in supply of explosives following the recent in-country security situation,” Resolute wrote on Friday.
The company cited “significant security challenges experienced in Mali in late April and May 2026,” which zooming out, references a broader war going on inside Mali since at least 2012. The country saw one government coup in 2020 followed by a reverse coup in 2021 that put the prior government back in power.
Last November, the government moved to give the current leader another 5 years in power without an election. In more recent history, the jihadi group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin stepped up offensive operations across the region in tandem with an ethnic separatist group.
Unfortunate for Resolute and more unfortunate for Mali’s citizens trying to live a normal life. The country is located in what is rather disparagingly but accurately known as Africa’s “coup belt,” which corresponds with a 6,000km transition zone that puts the south of Africa’s savannah and forests region up against desert.
“Syama remains an important asset within the Company’s portfolio … In addition, the Company is accelerating open pit mining activities to access higher-grade fresh ore,” the company reported on Friday.
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