Moto Says Congo’s Largest Gold Mine to Start in 2012 (Update2)
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By Ron Derby and Stewart Bailey
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Moto Goldmines Ltd., planning to develop the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest gold mine, said the deposit will start operating in 2012.
The project, in the country’s northeast Kilo-Moto region, will yield 400,000 ounces of gold a year, Andrew Dinning, president of the Balcatta, Australia-based company, said today in an interview in Livingstone, Zambia. The mine will produce 3.3 million ounces of gold over about nine years at a cost of $294 an ounce, according to a presentation posted on Moto’s Web site.
Dinning navigated more than two years of discussions with Congo’s government before agreeing to give the state a 30 percent stake in the venture. Development of the $483 million project will help the partners exploit gold prices that have gained for eight straight years and may contribute to reviving Congo’s economy, decimated after a civil war from 1996 to 2003.
The company used a gold price of $600 in its planning, more than a third below the current market price, to ensure the project “has robust economics,” Dinning said.
Gold futures for April delivery rose 10 cents to $914.30 an ounce today on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Moto fell 5 cents, or 2.1 percent, to C$2.36 as of 2:41 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The shares have jumped 28 percent this year, giving Moto a market value of C$206.7 million ($169 million).
To contact the reporters on this story: Ron Derby in Johannesburg at rderby1@bloomberg.net; Stewart Bailey in New York at sbailey7@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 6, 2009 16:33 EST
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