ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast's capacity for producing gold will double by 2013 to 13 tonnes a year, from its current production of 7 tonnes a year, energy and mines minister Adama Toungara told a news conference on Thursday.
"We will be able to reach 13 tonnes (a year) by 2013 and 20 tonnes by 2020," Toungara said.
He said the current annual production was hampered by inefficient bureaucracy that had slowed down the process of obtaining mining permits.
"The treatment of permits in Ivory Coast is inefficient because there was poor governance," he said. "Only 30 permits have been obtained in the past 10 years, against 170 requests."
He pledged to greatly speed up the process.
Speaking on separate plans to improve electricity generation, the minister also said the government would invest $500 million in upgrading Ivory Coast's main gas-fired power station between now and 2015.
Gold production in Ivory Coast has been hampered by decades of political crisis and instability. Most of its gold mines are in the north, which had been controlled by rebels since a 2002 failed coup attempt against former president Laurent Gbagbo split the country in two.
An election meant to resolve that impasse last November tipped the country back into civil war when Gbagbo refused to step down, despite losing to President Alassane Ouattara.
But since Gbagbo's detention by French-backed pro-Ouattara forces in April, security has improved and economic activity is returning to normal, after a sharp fall because of insecurity and a collapse of the banking system.
Randgold Resources's Tongon mine in Ivory Coast is set to hit a target of 272,000 ounces of gold output this year and maintain that level into 2020, Chief Executive Mark Bristow said in a Reuters interview at the end of last week.
Better gold production will go some way towards helping Ivory Coast improve its shattered public finances, after months of crisis in which government revenues were hit by war, sanctions and a liquidity crunch.
Holders of its defaulted $2.3 billion Eurobond are eagerly watching for signs of improved government revenues, after the Finance Ministry said it would not be able to pay any coupons until at least 2012.
But oil is a much more significant earner of government revenues than gold.
The country pumps around 35,000 barrels per day (bpd) a decline from its former average of 50,000 bpd and oil and gas figured as the second most important revenue earner, after import tax, in its supplementary budget for the rest of the year delivered last month.
Toungara said oil exploration was on the rise.
"There will be between five and seven drilling expeditions between now and September," he told the news conference.
Copyright Reuters, 2011
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