Shares of several gold companies came under heavy selling pressure on Thursday
after a military coup emerged in the west African nation of Mali. According to a
Reuters report, "Renegade Malian soldiers declared on state television on
Thursday they had seized power in the West African state in protest at the
governments failure to quell a nomad-led rebellion in the north." Other key
points from the report included: The coup has been fronted by soldiers of the
rank of captain or lower and, if successful, will add a new layer of insecurity
to a Saharan region battling al Qaeda agents and a flood of weapons trafficked
from Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The army has for weeks appealed to
the government for better weapons to fight the northern Tuareg rebels, now
bolstered by heavily armed ethnic allies who fought on Gaddafis side last year
but have returned to Mali. Government and military sources told Reuters the
mutineers entered the presidential palace overnight after it was vacated by
Toure (President Amadou Toumani Toure) and his entourage. A defense ministry
source said Toure a 63-year-old former coup leader due to step down after April
polls was in a safe location but his whereabouts were unknown. The largest gold
miner with operations in Mali is Randgold Resources (GOLD), whose shares tumbled
as much as $11.43, or 11.1%, to $91.97 per share earlier this morning, before
paring their losses to trade at $93.55 per share.
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