Gold mine gets longer life

WANETSHA MOSINYI
Staff Writer | Tuesday July 8, 2008 00:00

 

The Canadian gold-miner said it sees a longer life for the mine than earlier expected. Mupane is the only gold mine in Botswana and was expected to start closing by 2011. Iamgold said it expects to continue mining at Mupane until the second quarter of 2012, after declining costs gave it the leeway to increase mineral reserves by a net 64,000 ounce.

The company plans to continue to evaluate mining costs to determine whether it can develop additional resources to extend the mine life beyond 2012, Iamgold president and CEO, Joseph Conway said. 'The increase in reserves is a direct result of Iamgold's aggressive cost and production initiatives,' he said.

'Our lower operating costs due to the switch to owner mining at Mupane will allow for profitable mining of satellite pits that had been previously excluded from the original mine plan,' he added.

Iamgold has reduced operating costs after it converted the operation to owner mining during the first half of this year. After mining 37,000 ounce at Mupane during the first six months of 2008, the company increased mineral reserves by 27,000 ounce by end of June.The reserves were calculated using a gold price of $600 at 31 December 2007, and $650 at 30 June 2008.

The company said last month that it expected the change to owner mining would cut operating costs at the mine by at least $40/ounce. The firm was able to ship idled mining equipment from French Guyana to Mupane to be used for up to two years. Afterwards, the equipment could be redeployed to French Guyana.

Iamgold last year started looking for further ore deposits around Mupane to prolong the life span of its operations in the country. The company has plans to start mining the deposits at Signal Hill. This will be done together with other possible complementary mining deposits at Golden Eagle and Molomolo, which are both adjacent to Mupane mine. The projects are still awaiting the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The country manager of Iamgold in Botswana, Isaac Mangole, said last year that Mupane was running out of gold and was left with deposits that will last about three years. 'The mining at these satellite mines will not bring any significant increase in the lifespan of Mupane. At Signal Hill, we are looking at about 10 months of mining and that will add at least another year to Mupane's lifespan,' he said.