TONGON, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - South African gold miner Randgold said on Saturday its Tongon mine in the north of Ivory Coast will start production in October.
"We expect to produce 75,000 ounces of gold in 2010," Rangold Executive Director Mark Bristow said during a visit to the project.
He said the mine will ramp up to about 280,000 ounces of annual gold output from 2011 through 2013, and said total output from the mine during its projected 11-year lifespan would be 2.84 million ounces.
Bristow said the cost of the project, which employs about 1,600 people, was $280 million.
Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of cocoa but is seeking to boost revenues from gold mining to diversify its economy.
Gold output from the civil war-scarred West African state tripled in 2009 to about 6.94 tonnes.
Reuters Africa
