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Moto clearing political bombs Posted: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 [miningmx.com] -- CANADA’s Moto Goldmines said it had simplified its partnership with L’Office des Mines d’or de Kilo-Moto (Okimo), but conceded there was “still work to be done on the political side”. Moto and Okimo, which is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC’s) state-run gold mining company, have been at loggerheads for more than a year after the state firm said Moto had defaulted on 1998 agreements. Okimo was also seeking a reorganisation of its partnership agreement swapping asset level shares for a stake in Moto Goldmines’s listed shares to a level as much as 30%, a proposal Moto rejected. Since then, progress has been made. A development pact, signed in November, ratified previous agreements between the sides. It also promised to find ways of streamlining the agreements, but only when the DRC’s newly elected government was installed. Andrew Dinning, chief operating officer of Moto Goldmines, said the development agreement would help settle the dispute between the sides.”It’s a good agreement and we think it is enforceable,” he said. “There’s a few things to work out on the political side but once that is done we will move forward with rapid speed,” Dinning said. Dinning said the company may have established a new ‘gold camp’; effectively a new mining district in the DRC. Construction of a $296m mine would begin in 2008 with first production from its 290,000 oz/year mine due in 2009 and early 2010, he said. Annual output could also be lifted from initial expectations. “A bankable study will take the economics of the project forward. We expect cash costs to fall below $250/oz and for production to go up,” Dinning said. Dinning was speaking at the African Mining Congress which was held in Livingstone, Zambia. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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