Pinned straw:
Friday 5th September 2025: After Market Close: Well here we are, 8 days after WAF called a Trading-Halt.PDF last Thursday after receiving a "request" from the government of the West African county in which both of their gold mines operate, Burkina Faso, to increase their (the Burkina Faso Government's) ownership of WAF's Kiaka Gold Mine from 15% to 50% by acquiring another 35% (they already own 15%), and apart from the ASX telling us on Monday (Sept 1st) that they had rolled WAF into a Trading Suspension (Suspension-from-Quotation.PDF) from their Trading Halt due to not having received that update from WAF within the 2 trading days time period allowed for Trading Halts, and a few "Subs" notices, and a notice of the issue of 34,863 more performance rights for WAF management on 27/08/2025 (Application-for-quotation-of-securities---WAF.PDF) and a copy of WAF's presentation at the "Africa Downunder" (ADU) conference in Perth this past 3 days (3rd to 5th Sept) - click here for that presso, it's been crickets...
So - plenty of noise but nothing pertaining to Kiaka except in the ADU presso this morning which was clearly put together before last week's development. In one of their slides on Kiaka (slide 12) WAF said that Burkina Faso Gov. participation in Kiaka included 15% equity, an 8% royalty* + a 1% community fund, and WAF are paying 27.5% tax there as well.
* Assuming a gold price of US$3,490/oz. The royalty is a sliding scale from 3% based on the US$/oz gold price. The royalty is 8% at a gold price equal or greater than US$3,000/oz and below US$3500/oz and increases by 1% for each US$500/oz increase in price/oz.
However no mention of the 15% equity stake increasing to 50% - or what the Burkina Faso Government are prepared to pay for that additional 35% of the mine. Obviously "negotiations" continue.
It would have been a particularly interesting conference presentation in Perth today by WAF - plenty of questions from the attending analysts you reckon?!? And lots of stonewalling by WAF. After all, they can't disclose anything at the conference that they are not disclosing at the same time to the entire market via the ASX announcements platform, or that would be a clear breach of their continuous disclosure obligations and they might be suspended from trading. Oh, wait, they already are.
Here's where WAF's two gold mines are in Burkina Faso (slide 6 from today's presso):
And here is a map of Wagner involvement in West Africa from The Australian newspaper website (source)
I don't have a subscription to The Australian so I don't know the date they published that.
Here's another one:
Source: Wagner's next target was in Africa - the failed coup has destroyed their plans [June 2023]
And another one:
Source: Explained | The Wagner group's actions in Africa - The Hindu [April 2023]
Note - Yevgeny Prigozhin died in August 2023 when the aircraft he was travelling in was hit by a SAM (surface-to-air-missile). According to Russia's emergency ministry, Prigozhin died in an airplane crash on 23 August 2023. The Embraer Legacy 600 business jet was en route from Moscow to Prigozhin's home city of Saint Petersburg when it crashed, killing all 10 people on board.
This occurred not long after Prigozhin had a falling out with Vladimir Putin and begun marching his troops towards Moscow, before agreeing to a "peace deal" with Putin. Putin nonetheless promised punishment for those involved. And the main people involved are no longer alive.
The group formerly known as the Wagner Group is now however more active than ever, it's just that now it is a direct branch of the Russian Military and is directly controlled by Putin.
These maps all show that back in 2023 Mali was already considered a "no go" zone, and we've seen what happened there to Resolute and Barrick and their respective gold mining operations in Mali. The maps also show that Burkina Faso was considered risky, as even then it was known that Wagner were active in the country and held sway with the leaders of the country - they had an economic and political presence in the country - see below for that exact wording relating to Burkina Faso.
Source: Wagner's customers will have to adjust to new leadership [August 31st 2023; i.e. one week after Prigozhin's plane exploded with him in it]
I could go on. Some might suggest I already have... But that's all to say that the risks are both real and have been well known for a number of years.
I do have a shareholding in Turaco Gold (TCG) who have a gold project in the south east corner (right on the coast, on the right side) of Côte d'Ivoire which is the country directly below both Mali and Burkina Faso, and to date there have been no credible reports of Wagner influence in Côte d'Ivoire, especially the southern half, but it's certainly something I try to monitor. It's also a small position because Turaco are a gold project developer (no production yet) AND because they're in West Africa.
I also hold shares in Lycopodium who design and build gold mills (gold processing plants and associated infrastructure) in West Africa amongst other places (West Africa has been their happy hunting ground for a couple of decades now).
But apart from LYL (my largest real money position) and TCG (one of my smallest), I don't have any other exposure to West African countries, and I hope this post helps to explain why.
Friday 3rd October 2025: It's now been about five weeks since WAF called a Trading-Halt.PDF on August 28th after receiving a "request" from the government of Burkina Faso to increase their (the Burkina Faso Government's) ownership of WAF's Kiaka Gold Mine from 15% to 50% by acquiring another 35% (they already own 15%), which was rolled into a Trading Suspension two days later, and WAF remain suspended from trading today, five weeks later, with nothing in the way of updates about Kiaka other than their Africa Down Under presentation (in Perth, WA, on Sept. 5th) which contained zero news or details about this situation.
I was having a little dig around tonight to see if anyone is covering this story, and I came across this little bit of click-bait published on Monday (29th Sept) which made me smile:
Nope, I'll be right mate.
Source: https://stocksdownunder.com/west-african-resources-burkina-faso/
The following is a lot more accurate and sensible:
Burkina Faso pushes nationalist gold mining policy under Traoré
by 
Monday, 29 September 2025 18:31
- President Traoré signals plan to expand state role in gold exploitation
- New mining code allows state to raise free stake to 15% and buy 30% more
- Burkina Faso eyes 50% in Kiaka mine after moves on Boungou and Wahgnion
Burkina Faso’s government plans to continue tightening its grip on gold mining, President Ibrahim Traoré said on September 28, during a wide-ranging interview with local media broadcast on national television.
“The government’s approach is to exploit our gold ourselves. There are mines we have already taken over, and we will continue to gradually take control or co-exploit with companies already operating here,” Traoré said, criticizing past partnership models with multinational miners.
The statement follows the adoption of a new mining code in 2024. The law raised the state’s free minimum stake in mines to 15% from 10% and introduced an option for the government to buy at least 30% additional interest in gold projects.
In line with this policy, the government recently applied to acquire a 35% stake in the Kiaka gold mine. If successful, Ouagadougou would hold 50% of the mine, which began production at the end of June 2025. After the disclosure in late August, the mine’s Australian owner, West African Resources, suspended its stock market listing amid growing concerns among operators in Burkina Faso.
At the Africa Down Under conference earlier this month in Australia, Mamadou Sagnon, head of the country’s mining cadastre, sought to reassure investors, stressing that the law provides an option rather than an obligation. Still, Traoré’s latest remarks have renewed uncertainty.
In 2024, Burkina Faso reclaimed the Boungou and Wahgnion gold mines. Both had been operated by Endeavour Mining before being sold to Lilium Mining, owned by US-Burkinabè businessman Simon Tiemtoré. The assets became the subject of a dispute that the government later resolved.
--- ends ---
Source: https://www.ecofinagency.com/news-industry/2909-49103-burkina-faso-pushes-nationalist-gold-mining-policy-under-traore
The risk is real, and WAF have put all their eggs in the Burkina Faso basket, having both of their gold mines in that country.
Disclosure: Not held.
Source: Explained | The Wagner group's actions in Africa - The Hindu [April 2023]
30th November 2025: WAF resumed trading on Wednesday 26th November after releasing this update to the market after the market had closed on Tuesday 25th November:
Source: WAF-advances-discussions-with-Burkina-Faso-Government.PDF [25/11/2025 @ 5:46 pm]
Surprisingly - to me at least - their share price dropped less than 10%, and a little bit more on Thursday and then rose on Friday:
All things considered this is a damn good outcome for WAF shareholders:
The one page announcement (shown above) does put plenty of positive spin on the situation and it's clear that negotiations continue and that the Burkina Faso Government is obviously in a very strong position, so this is certainly not done and dusted yet, and things could certainly still get much worse for WAF from here, but the market seems reasonably impressed with WAF's handling of the situation over the past three months, and there is still optimism that the eventual outcome isn't going to be too bad for WAF and their shareholders. Let's hope so.
I really thought they were going to get SMASHED when they emerged from this trading suspension (that lasted 3 months) - but the actual outcome in share price terms has been FAR better than I expected. Hopefully WAF can continue to negotiate outcomes that benefit all parties, and that the Burkina Faso Government can and will agree to.
Disc: Not holding WAF.