WINDHOEK – B2Gold Namibia says it has given notice to MCC Equipment Rental (Proprietary) Limited of the termination of its interim contract to provide mining services to B2Gold.
MCC has been requested to stop work and to ramp down its activities. MCC had provisionally been conducting preparatory work and initial mining activities in the Otjikoto pit area since April of this year on a month-to-month basis. Such provisional arrangement, having been put in place pending the fulfillment of the pre-condition for any long-term appointment of MCC included the successful drafting and acceptance of a contract with B2Gold, which did not occur.
The demobilisation of the MCC crew commenced on August 5 and the premises will be vacated by 31 August 2013. At the same time, B2Gold will be ramping up their own team to take over the mining activities. B2Gold has asked MCC to allow the current workforce employed by MCC on site to apply for positions at B2Gold but, to date, has not received any permission or response to engage the MCC workforce.
The management team does not foresee that these developments will have any significant impact on construction progress at the Otjikoto site or on long-term productivity of the operations. All efforts by New Era to get comment from MCC Equipment Rental proved futile yesterday.
The Otjikoto gold project is located approximately 300 kilometres north of Windhoek between Otjiwarongo and Otavi and is owned 90 percent by B2Gold and 10 percent by EVI Gold (Pty) Ltd, a Namibian empowerment group.
Work on the Otjikoto gold mine is ongoing, on schedule and within budget. Construction commenced January 2013 with a ground-breaking ceremony in April of this year and will continue into the 4th quarter of 2014. It is anticipated that gold will be produced during the fourth quarter of 2014 with a ramp-up to full production in 2015.
The life of the open pit mine, based on the probable reserves, is estimated to be 12 years, with annual forecast gold production of approximately 141 000 ounces gold per year for the first five years and for the life of mine approximately 112 000 ounces of gold per year. During production the site will require more than 500 fulltime workers.
Story by Staff Reporter