Côte d’Ivoire Is Drilling Hard. CED Wants to Drill With It.

Freddy Mann

Oct 9

6 min read

Friday Global Expansion | Côte d’Ivoire | West Africa

Ghana was last Friday.

This week, CED isn't travelling very far.

We're heading next door.

🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire.

And if you want to understand why this country is firmly on CED's expansion radar, don't start with gold production.

Start with the drill metres.

Because Côte d’Ivoire isn't just mining gold.

It is aggressively looking for more of it.

Mineral exploration drilling camp in Côte d'Ivoire West Africa — A remote mineral exploration drilling camp in Côte d’Ivoire, showing drill rods, compressors, support equipment and field crews operating in tropical West African conditions. The image highlights the infrastructure required to keep RC, Air Core and diamond exploration programmes moving.

Across the country, exploration companies are running programmes involving auger drilling, Air Core, reverse circulation and diamond drilling.

That gets our attention.

Because every geological theory eventually reaches the same awkward point:

Somebody has to drill it.

And CED wants to be one of the companies supplying the equipment, consumables and people that make those metres happen.

Côte d’Ivoire Has Become Very Difficult to Ignore

West Africa is already one of the world's great gold regions.

But Côte d’Ivoire still has something particularly interesting:

room to explore.

The country sits across prospective Birimian geology, yet compared with some of its neighbours, significant exploration potential remains.

Now capital, exploration programmes and mine development are accelerating.

Montage Gold's 2026 activity alone gives some idea of the scale.

At Didievi, almost 40,000 metres had been drilled following the previous resource estimate before the company launched another 60,000-metre programme.

At Wendé, another programme is advancing greenfield targets toward a maiden resource.

And across Montage's Côte d’Ivoire portfolio, its reported 2026 drilling plans stretched into the hundreds of thousands of metres.

That's not somebody casually kicking rocks.

That's drilling.

And It Isn't Just Diamond Drilling

This is where Côte d’Ivoire becomes particularly interesting from CED's perspective.

Exploration programmes aren't all at the same stage.

Early exploration might start with geochemistry.

Then auger.

Then Air Core.

Then RC.

Then diamond drilling.

Then deeper diamond drilling as the geological model becomes more interesting.

Awalé Resources provides a good example.

At its Odienné Project, the company has been advancing new gold targets with Air Core drilling while simultaneously carrying out diamond drilling on established discoveries.

Elsewhere, programmes are progressing from auger drilling toward planned Air Core, RC and diamond drilling.

That exploration ladder matters.

Because CED doesn't manufacture one machine for one drilling method.

We build exploration equipment around different stages of the hunt.

Remote mineral exploration access in Côte d'Ivoire West Africa — A 4×4 exploration vehicle travelling through remote red-earth terrain in Côte d’Ivoire, highlighting the access and logistics challenges faced by mineral exploration teams operating across West Africa.

Start Shallow. Chase It Deeper.

Imagine an exploration company has identified a large geochemical anomaly.

You don't necessarily want to immediately throw deep diamond holes across the whole thing.

First, you need to understand what's happening beneath the surface.

That's where shallow exploration techniques become powerful.

Auger.

Air Core.

Shallow RC.

Quick holes.

More coverage.

More geological information.

Better targets.

Then, when something interesting starts appearing...

Bring in the diamond rig.

That progression is exactly why CED has continued expanding its equipment range beyond conventional diamond drilling.

Air Core Could Be Particularly Interesting in Côte d’Ivoire

CED's Air Core drilling equipment is designed for shallow mineral exploration programmes where companies need relatively rapid coverage across prospective ground.

And our SFM7300 takes that concept further.

Built around a highly mobile 6×6 platform, the SFM7300 has been developed for Air Core, shallow RC and auger exploration.

That's important in countries where exploration teams may need to move repeatedly between targets.

Drill.

Sample.

Move.

Drill again.

No circus every time the rig needs to relocate.

For appropriate Côte d’Ivoire exploration programmes, that mobility could become extremely useful.

Then RC Starts Doing the Heavy Lifting

Once targets become better defined, reverse circulation drilling can provide fast, productive exploration metres.

CED manufactures dedicated RC drilling rigs including the CEDRC100, CEDRC200 and CEDRC450.

But here's something we keep repeating:

An RC rig is not an RC drilling package.

You need air.

Lots of it.

Correct pressure.

Correct volume.

You need compressors.

Drill rods.

Hammers.

Bits.

Cyclones.

Sample equipment.

Hoses.

Lubrication.

Spares.

Support equipment.

And somebody who actually knows how to put the whole system together.

That's why CED prefers supplying complete RC packages.

Tell us your hole diameter.

Tell us your target depth.

Tell us your expected ground.

Tell us your planned metreage.

Then we can size the rig, compressor, drill string, consumables and support equipment around the programme.

Much better than buying half a drilling system from four different countries and discovering on site that nothing particularly likes talking to anything else.

And When the Geology Gets Interesting, Core It

Eventually, chips aren't enough.

You want core.

You want structure.

You want orientation.

You want recovery.

You want to see exactly what the geology is doing.

Welcome back to diamond drilling.

Recent Côte d’Ivoire programmes are already testing mineralisation hundreds of metres below surface.

At Awalé's BBM gold-copper deposit, deeper drilling has been testing below the existing open-pit resource toward approximately 600 metres vertical depth.

That is serious exploration.

And it requires serious equipment.

CED's diamond drilling range runs from compact, portable exploration rigs through to substantially larger machines capable of deeper programmes.

Again:

Start with the hole. Then choose the rig.

Difficult Access? Good. Now It Gets Interesting.

West African exploration doesn't happen on a showroom floor.

Rain happens.

Mud happens.

Tracks disappear.

Bridges become questionable.

Vegetation gets thick.

Drill pads aren't always conveniently located beside the main road.

And geological targets have absolutely no respect for logistics departments.

This is exactly why mobility has become such an important part of CED's equipment strategy.

We manufacture compact drilling equipment.

We build track-mounted equipment.

We develop man-portable systems.

And we're building the CED SFM Series around mobile 6×6 exploration.

Because sometimes adding another 20 tonnes to the problem isn't the smartest answer.

The SFM Series Was Built for Markets Like This

Imagine an exploration fleet rather than an isolated rig.

SFM7200 — surface diamond drilling.

SFM7300 — Air Core, shallow RC and auger.

SFM7600 — exploration support.

SFMTS — modular trailers carrying consumables, rods, fuel, water or other programme equipment.

Rig moves.

Support moves.

Consumables move.

Exploration moves.

That is the idea.

And across large West African exploration licences where programmes constantly shift between targets, that starts making a lot of sense.

But Equipment Alone Isn't Enough

CED doesn't want to become another company that sells a machine, sends a container and disappears.

International exploration needs support.

So CED can also supply:

Diamond drilling consumables.

RC consumables.

Air Core tooling.

Drill rods.

Bits.

Core barrels.

Muds.

Pumps.

Compressors.

Critical spares.

Preventative-maintenance packages.

Commissioning.

Training.

And experienced drilling personnel.

Because the objective isn't getting the rig to Côte d’Ivoire.

The objective is getting the rig drilling in Côte d’Ivoire.

Those are two very different achievements.

CED Can Supply the People Too

Sometimes the client already has an experienced drilling team.

Perfect.

We'll supply the equipment and support them.

Sometimes they need commissioning and training.

We can do that.

Sometimes they need supervisors, drillers or mechanical fitters.

CED can provide them.

And sometimes a company wants to discuss something broader:

Can you actually help us run the drilling programme?

Yes.

CED can discuss operational support and contract drilling opportunities where the project makes sense.

We're deliberately building the company across both sides of exploration drilling:

Manufacturing the equipment.

And understanding what happens when that equipment actually reaches the bush.

Why Côte d’Ivoire? Why CED? Why Now?

Because drilling is already happening.

Because exploration programmes are expanding.

Because new targets are being generated.

Because projects are moving from geochemistry into auger, Air Core, RC and diamond drilling.

Because deeper discoveries create demand for more capable diamond equipment.

And because West Africa is rapidly becoming one of the most important regions in CED's international growth strategy.

Last week Ghana.

This week Côte d’Ivoire.

And we're only getting started.

Planning Exploration Drilling in Côte d’Ivoire?

Don't send us a message saying:

“Please quote drilling rig.”

Give us something useful.

What commodity?

What drilling method?

Air Core?

RC?

Diamond?

What diameter?

What depths?

How many metres?

Single shift or double shift?

What does access look like?

What support equipment is already available?

Do you need consumables?

Do you need personnel?

Do you want equipment — or do you need help getting the entire programme drilling?

Give CED the problem.

We'll start with the hole and work backwards.