Post #147

🇲🇱Mali: High-Tech, Insurgency and Legitimacy 🌐 Mali’s President Assimi Goïta attended today’s inauguration of the country’s second lithium mine — the Bougouni project, about 180 km south of Bamako. ⏩Amid Mali’s ongoing struggle to contain jihadist groups, the ceremony’s main purpose was to reinforce the legitimacy of official authorities. ⏪ 🔸 The Bougouni mine, operated by British Kodal Minerals and Chinese Hainan Mining (+ the state holds a 35% stake by law), will primarily produce lithium spodumene — a lithium-bearing mineral that must be further processed into lithium carbonate or hydroxide before battery manufacturing. 🔸 Kodal plans to expand domestic value addition by building a flotation plant on site, projected to be commissioned by 2028. However, Bouhouni had started its operations long before the official inauguration ceremony 🔸Actual spodumene production of the Bougouni started in February, and on October 20 the first shipment of the 45,000t of concentrate mined since February arrived at the port of San Pedro, Côte d’Ivoire. 🔸The authorities had long delayed the official opening ceremony due to some technical inaccuracies in Kodal's operations, whereafter the jihadist militants apparently hijacked the working hours of Assimi Goïta, so that he could only attend today - long after the operations had started, which makes the event rather symbolical, not a real milestone. Devils Below