Banro Acquires Used Plant for Twangiza

Banro Corp. reported in mid-August that is has entered into an agreement to purchase a refurbished gold processing plant capable of achieving a throughput of 1.3 million mt/y for installation at its Twangiza gold project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The plant will be transported by sea from Australia to the port of Mombasa, Kenya and then by road to the Twangiza project site, where it will be erected and commissioned over the next 24 months.

The refurbished plant includes a crushing plant, two ball mills, a carbon-in-pulp section, a gold room and a laboratory. Banro’s consultants, SENET Engineering, estimate the total cost of purchasing and delivering the plant to Twangiza to be less than $15 million, representing significant savings in time and cost to Banro. SENET has been selected as the overall project manager and will manage the erection and commissioning of the plant. Banro intends to operate the plant as part of a low-cost, phase-one oxide mining operation, to be expanded in subsequent years.

Production from the first phase plant is estimated at between 80,000 and 110,000 oz/y of gold.

As featured in Womp 2009 Vol 08 - www.womp-int.com