Cora Gold Ltd on Tuesday announced the appointments of management personnel as it begins its tendering processes for its Sanankoro gold project in south Mali.

The West Africa-focused gold appointed Lourens Steenekamp as project director, Frikkie Fourie as mining consultant and Murray Paterson as head of geology.

Cora Gold added it has started its tender process for the construction of the mine, adding that the contract mining tender will formally begin once the Mali government lifts a permit moratorium regarding the layout of the project.

This comes after the company signed a $70 million mandate letter last month to support the construction of Sanankoro.

Cora Gold appointed Atlantique Finance to act as sole adviser in the structuring and mobilisation of the medium-term loan to support funding the development of the flagship gold project.

Atlantique Finance is the investment banking and advisory arm of Groupe Banque Atlantique and a member of the Banque Centrale Populaire Group, which Cora said is ‘the sixth-largest banking group in Africa in terms of equity and the leading banking institution in Morocco’.

The appointment of Atlantique Finance is for a minimum term of six months and on an exclusive basis.

Chief Executive Officer Bert Monro said: ‘I am delighted to welcome Lourens, Frikkie and Murray to the Cora team as we move Sanankoro towards the construction phase.

‘Additionally, we have been running a series of tenders for various aspects of the construction process and look forward to providing further updates on these in due course.’

Shares in Cora Gold were up 2.8% at 3.70 pence each in London on Tuesday midday.

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