Endeavour's CEO Talks West Africa On Latest Results Call14 May 2021 18:30
In terms of countries where we operate, Senegal -- I would say Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire are obviously very stable, politically. You probably saw that there was some time in Q1, I think was around March, there was two days of riots in the capital city. But that was mainly a political... it happens that sometimes, you have these type of events, but I would say that Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire are extremely stable. In the case of Côte d’Ivoire in particular since the re-election of President Ouattara, which is always good when you have a strong, I would say liberal President, which has been successful so far.
Côte d’Ivoire had between 7% to 9% GDP growth over the last five to six years. It's one of the fastest growing country in Africa and having the same president running the country for another five years, I think is going to be very good in terms of stability.
Burkina, obviously, we are the largest gold producer also Burkina. It's a key country for us. A bit more tricky on a security standpoint with regular attacks in one particular area of the country, which is the north part of the country and the three-border region... But, as you know, we've been operating in this countries for years. We believe that we have the right relationship with the government and the right protocols with our security team to ensure we are able to protect the assets and the people. Hence the fact that we were comfortable at the time to acquire SEMAFO assets...
So, I would say that from a security standpoint, in Burkina things are not improving, neither worsening. There is a big push right now with the Burkina army being extremely active in the north with the French. And hopefully in the next few weeks, we should see some improvements on that front.
In terms of M&A, as you said, I think we've done our share of the job in acquiring the right assets for our portfolio... We're now really focusing on organic growth. We've got amazing projects coming up with Phase 1 and 2 of Sabodala Massawa and then with Fetekro and Kalana.
It's funny to see, I would say, a Latin-American silver company [Fortuna buying Roxgold*] going right into Burkina but let's see. It's going to be interesting to watch. And for other assets unless Clive Johnson wants to sell Fekola, which I don't think he intends to, we don't have any particular interest for external growth.
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And a closing note from former Centamin COO Mark Morcombe
"Thank you, Joanna, and hello to everyone on the call. I've just returned from visiting a number of our mines and we will happily trade the 40 degree heat at Sabodala for the current English weather any day..."
My Thoughts: Endeavour is sure getting some performance out of Mark - not like his time at Centamin under Pardey!
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