First 100% Malian Pure Gold
Raw Gold is Melted and Refined locally
“Mali is a county known for its gold since antiquity. In the 21st century, Mali still does not have a vibrant economy built on gold. Our goal is to transform raw gold into refined gold within Mali before exporting.” – Ismail Siby
You may be familiar with the story of Mansa Musa also known as Kankan Musa among other names. He was a Malian king who lived from 1280 to 1337. He is considered by many to be the wealthiest man who ever walked the face of the earth. To put this into context, he made his Muslim pilgrimage (journey to the holy place) between 1324 and 1325. For this journey, he brought along more than 21.6 tons of gold. In today’s gold price, this would be about $1.3 US Dollars.
Mali’s got gold
Fast forward to today. Mali is the 3rd producer of gold on the continent and there is still room to grow. It’s against this backdrop that Ismael took on the challenge to go against the convention to build his own gold refinery in Mali and ensure gold is refined locally before it’s exported.
In 10 years, he has built a company that employs 200 people and contributes to the local economy in many other ways. With a personal investment of about 2 billion Franc CFA, Ismail’s Marena Gold buys between 10 Kg and 50 Kg of raw gold daily from local traditional miners. In a typical transaction, a miner might sell 150 g of raw gold which would be purchase for about 5000 Euros (3 million Franc CFA). Each batch of raw gold is scanned via an x-ray machine that determines the concentration in gold, silver and other minerals. Once purchase, the raw gold goes through the following steps to be refined:
Melting: the raw gold is melted in ingot. This is a relatively quick operation that takes between 10 and 15 minutes.
Separation: the ingots are passed through a machine that will separate the yellow metal from other metals. This is a much longer operation that can take up to 6 hours.
Final Ingots: in this stop, the separated gold is finally melted in ingots and marked with the seal indicating the weight, purity and logo of the company.
Ismail’s story is a good example of determination. In an industry that’s primarily dominated by multi-national companies, he was able build a successful gold producing and exporting company that creates local jobs. There might be opportunities that others on the continent see in following on his foot steps or buying and turning his company’s gold into fine jewellery and other finished products.