JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Midtier gold-miner Great Basin Gold is ready to expand its African footprint, CEO Ferdi Dippenaar tells Mining Weekly Online.
The company, which is developing the Burnstone mine in South Africa and owns the Hollister operation in the US, has initiated exploration projects in Tanzania and Mozambique.
“The focus over the past two years has been the completion of Burnstone and to get Hollister up and running. With both of these projects now complete, the focus of the company will be to generate a steady cash flow which will fund further exploration work in Africa,” Dippenaar said this week during a site visit to Burnstone.
The company is carrying out exploration projects in the Lupa region of Tanzania, as well as further north in the Lake Victoria region. Initial resource estimates indicate that the Lupa exploration project has an estimated resource of about 600 000 oz while the Lake Victoria resource holds a resource that is a few hundred thousand ounces.
“All of these estimates are based on one past exploration that the company carried out over two years ago. More infill drilling needs to be conducted to get a better understanding of the resource. Despite this, the company is happy with the initial results and is excited at the prospect of expanding its African footprint in order to capitalised on the increased global commodity demand,” he added.
In Mozambique, Dippenaar reported that the company had identified a need for world-class gold projects in the region and have carried out early-stage exploration in the country. Based on the initial exploration’s technical report, Great Basin would decide on a date to initiate the second phase of its drilling programme.