Big find for Malian artisinal gold miners

Artisanal miners in Mali have found a 2.7-kg gold nugget on a property licenced to African Gold Group (AGG-V).

The irregularly-shaped nugget was found in the northwest area of the Kobada concession; an area where the company hasn’t done any exploration work.

African Gold Group says the nugget fell apart when it was lifted for weighing, indicating that it had not traveled far from its point of origin. It is thought that the nugget was weathered out of a quartz-carbonate vein.

The company says that there is a strong presence of artisanal miners in the area. In fact, locals have mined the region for hundreds of years.

African Gold president Michael Nikiforuk says the miners sold the nugget, which was about 95 oz., to their usual financial underwriter in Bamako, Mali’s capital.

He said he would have liked to have bought the nugget for the company’s own collection, and even wired $100,000 to Mali, but the transaction had already taken place.