[miningmx.com] — SOUTH African mining company Pan African Resources plans to mine gold in central Mozambique by 2012, the company’s MD said on Monday.
Exploration had been completed on a site in Manica province close to Mozambique’s border with Zimbabwe and the border town of Mutare, said PAF MD Jan Nelson.
“We are busy completing a definitive feasibility study,” he said, adding: “In three months the study will be presented to government.”
The mine should start operating around 15 months after the mining licence was granted, Nelson said.
However, he qualified this by saying: “We should engage with government. They’ve first got to give the okay.”
According to its website, PAF has spent $18m on exploration in Manica over the past four years. The company plans to mine 30,000 ounces of gold a year from 410,000 ton of ore.
“Our plan is to start with an open pit at a depth of 40 metres,” said Nelson.
It is not yet certain if a new gold refinery will need to be built to refine the ore, he said.
This contradicted announcements by Mozambican mining authorities, which said PAF would build a refinery due to start operating before the end of the year.
The refinery would cost US80m and would initially employ 300 workers, mineral resources Minister Esperanca Bias reportedly told the state newspaper Noticias.
“We will not build a refinery,” said Nelson.
“There (already) is a refinery. We need to test whether it can handle the quantity (of gold mined).”
