Mining Tycoon’s $1 Billion Manganese Project Nears Collapse
- Company accuses Burkina Faso of planning to withdraw permit
- Paris court to decide on project for second time in decade
Machines sit at the Tambao manganese mine in Burkina Faso.
Photographer: Ahmed Ouoba/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
A unit of Timis Mining Corp. that says it was forced to stop developing the world’s largest manganese deposit may seek as much as $4 billion in damages from Burkina Faso because the suspension of mining will endanger its other projects in West Africa.
Pan African Minerals’ $1 billion Tambao project has been “completely suspended” since June 2015 and the company has fired almost all its workers, managing director Souleymane Mihin said in an interview Thursday in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou. The company on Dec. 2 petitioned the International Court of Arbitration in Paris to protect its permit from being withdrawn, he said.