East Africa: Another Tanzania Gold Mine Opens 201114 September 2010
Dar Es Salaam — The London-listed Shanta Gold Mine has announced it will commence production of gold at its Chunya Gold Mine in the southern highlands of Tanzania starting the last quarters of next year.
At the latter three areas gold mining is yet to be highly commercialized. Tanzania is the third biggest gold producer in Africa after Ghana and South Africa. Mr Taylor said the results of a feasibility study for Chunya supports a 360,000 tonnes per annum metallurgical process plant, fed from a number of open-pit operations, which could produce a yearly average of 28,400 ounces of gold over an eleven-year production life.
He said the study projected the production of an average of 28,400 ounces of gold per annum at an average cash cost of $643 per troy ounce. A mining licence was granted to the company last week following the approval by the Minister for Energy and Minerals in a letter of August 31st August, 2010
Minister William Ngeleja said the licence permits Shanta company to start construction works any time from now upon submission of detailed planning. Taylor said the gold mining project is scheduled for the last quarter of this year.
The firm's executive chairman, Walton Imrie, said Shanta followed all needed procedures and "We are happy that Tanzanian authorities have been helpful and efficient in processing the various permits required to start a mining project."
Mr Imrie said his company had also received approval of its environmental certification which was completed in the last 12 months. Currently Shanta company is negotiating with construction and production suppliers including the power utility, Tanesco.
"This is the first modern era gold project to be developed in the Lupa goldfield, and we believe a successful mine will benefit not only the company but importantly the development of our neighbors and the economy of Tanzania," he said.
The Chunya gold mine development project is situated near the Saza and Mbagala villages in Chunya district of Mbeya Region. The Chunya gold mining project has hired Environmental, Process and Mining Consultants Ltd (EPMC) to carry out a detailed design of the Chunya mine. The latter firm previously carried out the feasibility study of the project. Shanta is also studying the economic viability of another gold project, the Singida project in Central Tanzania, which if proven viable would be turned into a gold mine
Provided by AllAfrica.com