TIE had artisanal miners over the permit. However I don't recall...

TIE had artisanal miners over the permit. However I don't recall them actively disclosing it (until now). Have a look at the recent quarterly and they talk about the artisanal mining.

Read this journal paper (intro only) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843222000759 'Artisanal gold mining takes place in 24 of the 31 regions of Côte d'Ivoire'.

I work in approvals and can tell you that artisanal mining happens all over the place in Africa, including Cote d'Ivoire. Its illegal and you would not want to be caught be the governments (they are essentially stealing from the gov). The artisanal miners aren't going to risk it if there isn't definite gold to be found.

I'm not sure why MKG keep talking about the artisanal mining sites though. I'm guessing they want investors to know that there is likely to be a lot of surface gold. But its a catch 22, as investors may see it as a problem and a depletion from the permit. Its hard to know the exact extent of the artisanal mining sites on MKG permits, but most are sites pretty small scale and very much at surface (you can see some pics in that journal article).