[miningmx.com] – Kalaa Mpinga, CEO of London’s AIM-listed Mwana Africa, said the firm’s gold and nickel operations in Zimbabwe had reduced costs in response to persistently lower commodity prices.
Mwana Africa operates the Freda Rebecca gold mine and the Trojan nickel operation in Zimbabwe.
It said nickel sales-in-concentrate for the quarter rose by 49% to 2,072 tonnes while gold recoveries for the period increased to 83% from 78% in the previous quarter.
Bullion production for the quarter marginally increased to 14,358 ounces.
On Thursday, Mpinga said the Zimbabwe operations were on a sound footing for future profitability after managing to contain costs. At the Freda Rebecca gold mine, he said, the company is now working towards “new high grade’ zones.
“While gold prices declined progressively throughout the financial year, the company was able to achieve a 4% reduction (to $1,076 per ounce) in gold production cash costs. The focus remains on further curtailing of costs and grade control as mining moves increasingly into the higher-grade stopes,’ he said.
Zimbabwean gold producers sell their bullion through a unit of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and Mwana Africa said it received an average gold price of $1,222/oz compared to $1,195/oz achieved in the previous quarter.
At the Trojan nickel mine, sustaining production costs were 36.5% lower at $7,293 per tonne, with Mpinga attributing this to “greater nickel production’.
Work towards restarting the nickel smelter production is progressing, with major components of the plant expected to be delivered between now and June.
Mwana also owns copper and gold projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it is working with Hailiang, on “… finalising the work programme and budget for 2016” for the copper/cobalt project.
Earlier this year, Mwana Africa raised $20m through a five-year bond issue for use in the restart of its nickel smelter operation.
The company said Thursday that it was awaiting a response from South Africa for its application for the renewal of mining rights for the Klipspringer diamond operation in South Africa.
