| Thu 23 Sep 2004, 11:32 | | AngloGold to start exploring for gold in the DRC t |
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AngloGold to start exploring for gold in the DRC this year
September 23, 2004
Johannesburg - AngloGold Ashanti, the world`s second-biggest gold producer, will begin exploring for the metal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) this year as the government seeks to recover from a civil war.
`This is no sleeper for us,` Sam Jonah, AngloGold`s president, said on the sidelines of a conference in Johannesburg.
`By the end of the year we will be starting our exploration activity there.`
Formerly known as Zaire, the DRC has struggled to attract investment since the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was ousted in 1997. The ensuing civil war had killed 3.5 million people by the end of last year.
The country holds some of the world`s largest copper deposits and the biggest known reserves of cobalt and coltan.
AngloGold had the support of the DRC government and of the UN peacekeeping mission, Jonah said.
The country has 3.4 million refugees, as much as 38 percent of its population is malnourished and 20 percent of children don`t reach the age of five, the UN says.
`The whole world is looking for a winner, a success story to come out of the Congo to stabilise the situation and we are being given every encouragement,` Jonah said.
Spokesman Steve Lenahan said AngloGold would spend $33.4 million (R215 million) looking for new gold mines this year.
He didn`t give a budget for the DRC venture.
AngloGold inherited prospecting rights at Kilo-Moto, in northeastern DRC, after merging with Ashanti Goldfields this year. Ashanti`s geologists had left the country in 1997, Jonah said.
Only 2 300 ounces of gold was produced in the Kilo-Moto region that year, `with potential for a major increase`, the US Geological Survey said in a report.
Mvelaphanda Resources, which owns 15 percent of the South African mines of Gold Fields, is also exploring for gold in Kilo-Moto. Mvelaphanda would spend as much as $10 million looking for gold in the DRC, Mineweb said in January, citing chairman Tokyo Sexwale.
AngloGold produced 1.49 million ounces of gold at the end of the June quarter and expects output of 1.6 million ounces in the three months to September.
AngloGold would step up its search for shallow, low-cost gold mines in Russia and China, and was `constantly on the lookout for good partners`, Jonah said.
AngloGold in July agreed to buy a 29.9 percent stake in Trans Siberian Gold, which explores in Russia.
AngloGold shares rose R1.55 to R244.05 as the gold sector added 1.98 percent. - Bloomberg
