9 Morila pit.
10 Conveyor belt to secondary crusher at Morila.
MORILA CONTRAC-
TOR EMPLOYEES
Dec 2005
Dec 2004
National permanent
995
850
Expatriate
40
87
Total
1 035
937
Training and development
The mine’s labour localisation programme has
enabled expatriate staff numbers to be reduced by
17 during 2005. The mine currently has a complement
of 18 engineering apprentices in training. Six Morila
employees who attended the 2004 Management
Development Programmes graduated in February 2005
while an additional six attending the 2005 courses were
due to graduate in February 2006. One employee has
enrolled for a Graduate Diploma in Engineering.
Five Malian engineering undergraduates studying on
Malian Mining Industry Bursaries, sponsored by Morila,
visited the mine for two months for practical vocational
training.
Several safety related training courses were held at
Morila during 2005, including first aid, cyanide handling
and firefighting courses. Morila assisted Loulo by
providing metallurgical operator basic training for
30 potential employees. Two capacity training courses
for Morila union representatives were held in 2005.
Industrial relations
The industrial relations climate showed signs of
improvement during the year and a Morila mine level
agreement was signed in October with the Morila union.
The mining contractor, Somadex, experienced a three
day strike in July which deteriorated into a protracted
six week stay away.
The Morila union rejected a two day national strike call
during October.
Community development
The three main micro economic development projects
this year concerned the setting up of tree nursery projects,
increasing the number of market gardens and enlarging
rice growing projects in the villages surrounding the
mine.
The main infrastructural development during the year
was the construction and electrification of a library for
the fundamental school in Sanso village.
The focus areas for the enhancement of basic health
were the mosquito control and malaria education
programme and the HIV/AIDS awareness education
campaign.
TONGON PROJECT
The three million ounce Tongon project is located in
northern Côte d’Ivoire, 628 kilometres north of Abidjan
within the 671km
2
Nielle permit.
The project has been stalled at feasibility stage for the
past couple of years while that country has been dealing
with political instability and conflict. The current peace
process has strong African and international support
and the company believes the patience and commitment
it has shown will eventually be rewarded. It has recently
visited the site and shared its plan to restart the project
with the central government and regional authority, both
of which indicated their support. The intention is to re-
establish the camps and initiate a strategic drilling
programme prior to the elections planned for late 2006.
Should the elections have the anticipated stabilising
effect, a feasibility drilling programme will then be
implemented.
During the year the Tongon project was fully reviewed.
The updated resource base for the project is tabulated
on the following page.
All resources are in the inferred category. A mineable
resource has been estimated only for the southern zone
of 13.05 million tonnes at a grade of 3.54g/t for a total
of 1.5 million ounces. This has formed the basis of a
preliminary economic assessment.
22 Annual Report 2005    Randgold Resources