Ann: Drilling Commences on Manganese Discovery at Korhogo Project, page-41

Peter has just put out a video on artisanal miners (on Mako YouTube). So hopefully that puts that issue to bed for those who were worried. Please ignore the comments from some on here saying artisanal miners are getting down to 80m, what a load of rubbish!

Ive said this before, but ill say it again. Artisanal mining is very very common on all permits in Africa! You will be hard pressed to find a permit without artisanal mining (I suggest people look at presentation by TIE, TGC and GMR over the years. WAF and PRU also had artisanal miners on their permit by the way - probably still do have some). Based on what Peter showed in that video the artisanal mining is not extensive (especially compared to some permits where the artisanal miners have managed to get hold of diggers etc.!) and is very shallow. Those who are familiar with mining in Africa know it is almost impossible to clear artisanal miners from the site. Later you would fence the area off and have security but at this exploration stage and that is not normal practice. The government does very little to assist in most cases. You also have to be a bit careful as you can really get the locals off your side if you handle the issue haphazardly (yes you want to keep the local villages happy if you are eventually going to go to development). The scale of artisanal mining on Makos permit are very very minor I would say.