Newmont Gets Greenlight •For Akyem Mine
NEWMONT GOLD Ghana Limited (NGGL's) effort at getting a permit to operate its Akyem Concession is expected to materialize by the end of this year.
Esther Obeng Dapaah, Minister of Mines, Lands and Forestry made this known in a speech read on her behalf at a People's Assembly held in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region.
According to her, commencement of works by the company at its Akyem mine would not only pave the way for landowners to get reasonable compensations for their crops but also allow them to enjoy annual grounds rent.
She said to forestall illegal gold mining in the area therefore, she had urged Newmont to offer part of its concession at Noyem for small-scale mining so interested 'galamseyers' could apply to legalize their operations.
Recently, Newmont Ghana interacted with journalists in Accra at a press soiree on the way forward for the company.
Jeff Huspeni, regional vice president- Africa Operations of the company, who expressed optimism about the development, pledged his outfit's commitment to developing communities in which it operated.
“What we really want is to live and partner with the communities so that there is that future and legacy of building and growing it to the next level.”
With his 26 years in explorations, Mr Huspeni hinted that the underground mining at the Ahafo area was currently an average of two and half grams, hence the company's continued exploration in that zonal range “to see if we can find other zones that have more potential to support the underground mining”.
Ahafo, Newmont's first mine in Africa, produced 456,000 ounces of gold in 2007 after first pouring gold in 2006. The site has reserves of 9.7 million ounces of gold.
On the Akyem concession, whose Environmental Impact Study application was submitted about two and a half years ago, he said the deposits and environment were being studied while the company was learning a lot about land access, relocations and the communities.
“We are moving forward to get that permit and to finalize every transaction. We would continue to optimize the project so that we can put that to our Board of Directors for approval”.
The tune of this project, he stated, was “about 8 million ounces of resources, so it is something that you want to pay attention to.”
Anticipating the mine's average cost per ounce of gold would rise to between $485 and $520 this year from $396 in 2007, he added that Newmont expects to produce 526,000 ounces of gold at its Ahafo mine in Ghana in 2008, up 9.6 percent from last year.
The company's costs applicable to total sales dipped 2.2 percent to $396 per ounce last quarter.
However, it fears production costs will rise as much as 11 percent this year to $425 to $450 an ounce from an average $406 last year.
By Samuel Boadi & Nathaniel Y. Yankson