Avocet's gold mining and exploration operations were historically located in South East Asia. In June 2009, Avocet acquired Wega Mining and, through it, operations in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali. Following this acquisition the decision was taken to divest of our South East Asian assets in order to focus on the highly prospective gold region of West Africa. In December 2010, an agreement was reached to sell our South East Asian assets for US$200 million. To date US$197 million of these proceeds have been received.

The Bélahouro district is in the western part of the Birimian greenstone belt. Within this district and in addition to Inata, Avocet acquired the exploration project at Souma among a total of eight exploration licences. Souma has a mineral resource of 0.56 million ounces. Souma is subject to a further drilling campaign to increase its Mineral Resource and generate an ore reserve that may supplement the ore feed at Inata or provide additional production for a new, separate plant at Souma.