Modern Mining February 2019

MINING News

Acacia’s full year production beats guidance

London-listed Acacia Mining, which operates the North Mara, Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi gold mines in north-west Tanzania (and whose operations in the country have been impacted by a long- running tax dispute with the Tanzanian government), produced 130 581 ounces of gold during Q4-2018, bringing total pro- duction for the year to 31 December 2018 to 521 980 ounces. “This is substantially ahead of our ini- tial production guidance for the year of 435 000 to 475 000 ounces. I am proud of the resilience, hard work and dedica- tion shown by our people in realising this achievement despite a challenging operat- ing environment. Over the last 12 months we have focused on successfully stabilising the business, including a return to free cash flow generation in Q2, and I am pleased to report that we end the year with a net cash balance of US$88million,”said Peter Geleta, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Acacia. According to Geleta, full year produc- tion was ahead of expectations, although 32 % lower than 2017 due to the transi- tion to reduced operations at Bulyanhulu and to stockpile processing at Buzwagi. Gold production in 2018 benefitted from the higher grade ore received from the

The underground mine at North Mara, which is a combined open-pit and underground operation from two deposits, Gokona (underground) and Nyabirama (open pit). North Mara produced 84 079 oz during Q4 (photo: Acacia).

mance of the Buzwagi processing plant with improved throughput and recover- ies. Also contributing was the favourable performance from tailings processing at Bulyanhulu. 

Nyabirama open pit at North Mara, the extended mining of the final cut of the higher grade ore at the bottom of the pit and switchbacks at Buzwagi combined with the better than expected perfor-

Mupane reports its best annual output since 2013 Galane Gold, listed on the TSX-V, reports that it produced 35 528 ounces of gold at its Mupane property near Francistown in Botswana during 2018, which represents its best annual output since 2013.

“Work is still ongoing at Galaxy with first production still expected in April 2019. Production at Galaxy will ramp up slowly in line with the current mine plans so that the full capacity of the new plant will only be filled in 2020. With both operations run- ning in 2019, we are targeting a combined production in excess of 40 000 ounces with over 8 000 of such ounces coming from Galaxy.” 

Barberton in South Africa’s Mpumalanga Province. Galane acquired Galaxy Gold in November 2015. “This represents a strong year for the Mupane operations with production from Tau underground contributing to excep- tional operating results,” comments Galane Gold’s CEO, Nick Brodie.

The company is also working to revive the Galaxy gold mine (known in the past as the Agnes mine) situated 6 km west of

February 2019  MODERN MINING  9