Gold Fields Neuerwerbungen

Neuerwerbungen in Peru, Venezuela, und Burkina Faso usw.
Gold Fields approves $277 million Peru mine
By: Gareth Tredway
Posted: `05-DEC-05 14:30` GMT © Mineweb 1997-2004



JOHANNESBURG (Mineweb.com) -- Gold Fields has maintained its latest theme of ‘mining in South America’ after it announced approval to construct the Cerro Corona gold and copper project in Peru.

The world’s fourth largest gold producer has been looking at the project since the end of 2003, when it signed a purchase agreement with its majority owners (representing 92% voting shares).

A lengthy approval process has taken place, which even included public hearings in a nearby soccer stadium.

The announcement closely follows Gold Fields’s recent $330 million offer for Bolivar Gold a Venezuelan gold producer.

“We are pleased with the establishment of a presence in South America,” said Gold Fields chief executive, Ian Cockerill.

The 300,000oz per year gold equivalent Cerro Corona project will cost $277 million to build and begin production in mid-2007 according to management and has a 15-year life.

The mine is expected to produce just over 400,000oz equivalent initially, and then move down towards the 300,000oz level over a five-year period. All this at life of mine cash costs of $250/oz.

John Munro, head of new business development, says if just the gold costs were expensed and copper sales written off as a credit, cash costs would be around $136/oz. Also a good indication of how much copper the deposit holds. The assumptions were made using a $375/oz gold price and a $0.90/lb copper price.

The announcement also moves the company a step closer to its stated goal of adding another 1.5 million ounces of annual international production by 2009.

With the two South American projects and some brownfields expansion on existing projects, Cockerill says the company is about 500,000oz-600,000oz short of that target.

Another project in the pipeline is the Essakane project in Burkina Faso, where Gold Fields will get a 60% share if it completes a bankable feasibility study. Cockerill said on Monday that the mine could be a 350,000oz-400,000oz per annum producer, of which 210,000oz-240,000oz would be attributable to Gold Fields.

According to Gold Fields’s annual report 2005, a new Pre-Feasibility Study resource model will be finalised by the end of this year for Essakane.

But that still leaves the company about 350,000oz short.

In the annual report, Gold Fields also gave mention to its near 20% investment in Comaplex Mining, a Toronto listed explorer. Gold Fields is providing technical assistance on the Meliadine gold project, north of Ontario, Canada.

So far the project has proved up resources of 1.4 million ounces at an average grade of 11.5g/t, according to the report. Comaplex has a market capitalisation of C$100 million.


Gruß Mickefett