moto goes producing with anglogold

From greenfield to 11m DRC gold oz in three years
A gold prospect has been fast-tracked from greenfield to 11-million proved ounces in the prospective Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in merely three years, the Mining Indaba in Cape Town heard yesterday during an African ministerial forum yesterday.

The Western Australia-based MD of Moto Gold Mines, Klaus Eckhof, who has on his board long-time AngloGold Ashanti executive Dave Hodgson, told the meeting that in three years his company had managed to drill 120 000 m in exploration activities in the notorious north-eastern DRC, which he described as stable, safe and a pleasant place in which to operate.

Chairing the fast growing company is former AngloGold Ashanti executive Sir Sam Jonah.

Eckhof told the gathering how the Moto team had managed to firm up a resource of 11-million ounces, which was a very sizeable project without world precedent in so short a time.

The company's listed status on both the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges had already been elevated from that of an exploration company to one of an emerging producer.

That the company has been able to become bankable in three years in the DRC had surprised some, he said, which is why the government of the DRC had requested him to present the Moto case study to the forum.

The company had not required a security force presence on site, which was grassland and not jungle.

Access was comparable to the situation in Tanzania and infrastructure was “not bad”, even though some improvement was necessary.

The operation was being brought into production by Andrew Dinning and would be a 250 000 oz/y operation by 2009.

Most of the operation would be profitable at $300/oz move into production far faster than many assumed in the DRC.

Earlier DRC Minister of Mines Ingele Ifoto had urged those present to pay DRC a visit to see for themselves how exploration was increasing rapidly in the country and applications for prospecting licences were rising.