A tense situation between residents of Touvre, a small farming community of about 5,000 in Côte d’Ivoire, and a company searching for lithium in the area, came to a head last spring.
Villagers took to the streets to protest against the business's activities. They were met with live gun fire from AK-47s and tear gas from the local police. Though no one was shot, three women were taken to hospital, medical reports seen by openDemocracy show.
At the heart of the residents’ discontent, says Coulibaly Ibrahima, Cote d’Ivoire’s director general for mines, was that the licence to search for lithium in the area had switched hands from Ivorians to a foreign company: Firering Strategic Minerals, which is registered in Cyprus and listed on London’s AIM stock exchange. Around the time of the deal, prospecting activities escalated.
