"Details should be released within the next few days, Kasongo said".
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Canada's Moto in DRC gold plan http://www.miningmx.com/events/indaba_2006/885848.htm
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC's) state-owned Okimo, and foreign-listed Moto Goldmines are to unveil a deal that will bring a 300,000 oz/year gold mine into production in the next two years.
Okimo is urging AngloGold Ashanti and Moto Goldmines to fast track their gold projects to produce 20 tons of gold a year.
“Okimo will conclude a major transaction with Moto,” Okimo CEO Victor Kasongo told a packed breakfast meeting attending the Indaba Mining Conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Details should be released within the next few days, Kasongo said.
Klaus Eckhoff, MD of Moto, told Miningmx the transaction would see Okimo, which has a 30% stake in its gold project, switching into 10% of the company’s shares.
The Moto Gold Project is located in the Moto goldfields in the north east of the DRC, some 560km north east of the city of Kisangani and 150km west of the Ugandan border town of Arua.
Okimo also has a 25-year convention with South Africa’s AngloGold Ashanti, of which 15 years remain.
“We are in discussions with AngloGold to speed up and get to 10 tons of gold a year,” he said, without giving a timeframe.
AngloGold Ashanti and Moto will contribute equally towards the 20-tonnes-per-year target, he said.
“I’m certain that they are receptive to our wishes,” he said.
Okimo holds 14% of AngloGold Ashanti's Kilo exploration project in the DRC. AngloGold Ashanti will spend $30m over the next three years on exploration there, said company spokesman Steve Lenahan.
" There will be a pre-feasibility in 2008, and if that yields the results we hope to see we could begin construction in 2009," he said.
" If Victor Kasongo wants us to hasten exploration there we agree completely. We are going to expedite this project as much as is feasibly possible," he added.
Moto Goldmines has changed from an exploration company to an emerging producer after successive offers from major gold miners continued to disappoint, Eckhoff said.
“Most of the majors have been on site. Some have made offers in the last two years, most of the offers had a huge discount on them, or they were not satisfactory. Hence the decision to change to an emerging producer and go it alone,” he said.
Gold Fields was one of the bidders, but Eckhoff said: “They offered peanuts. Now it is too late.”
Newmont had also taken a look at the project. It would now have to make a bid for the asset instead of coming in as a partner, he said.
Moto is busy with a pre-feasibility study and should have a bankable feasibility study completed by early 2007. By the end of 2008 production is expected to begin.
The operation will have initial production of 300,000 oz/year building up to 500,000 to 60,000 oz/year when oxide mining is augmented with a primary circuit. An oxide plant will be built at a cost of $100m.
When the project moves to underground mining that figure is seen rising to 800,000 to 900,000 oz/year, he said. Cash costs could be as low as $120/oz. The project will be funded largely through debt.
The board now includes AngloGold Ashanti’s president Sam Jonah as chairman and ex-AngloGold Ashanti stalwart Dave Hodgson as partner and chief operating officer, Eckhoff said. There are also plans to bring Kasongo onto the board.
Kasongo said Okimo also has two iron ore deposits known as Tina and Kodo. Kodo has an estimated resource of five billion tonnes. Tina has still to be fully measured, he said.
He alluded to a deal with a South African company to exploit the orebody, but declined to give any more details apart from saying a partner could be brought into the project before the end of this year.
China has expressed interest in purchasing the iron ore and possibly becoming involved in some way, he said. Okimo could also look at building a steel plant.
Sudan and Uganda could be brought into the project too in order to realise full value at the iron ore deposits in the northeast of the DRC, he said.
The iron ore would exported through Mombassa.
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