Banro’s Twangiza gold mine (IM, February 2008, pp8-26) is on schedule to pour gold in Q4 2011 and ramp up to full production of around 10,000 oz/month early in 2012. Simon Village, CEO said in August: “We are fast approaching a significant milestone for both Banro and South Kivu province in the DRC. Since Banro’s Board made the decision to proceed with development and construction of the Twangiza Mine in the summer of 2009, we have worked diligently to a fast schedule which has allowed our company to pour its first gold in two years, and with weeks to go, we remain on schedule. It will be the first new commercial gold mine in the DRC for over half a century.”

The successful activation of this 1.3 Mt/y capacity gold production facility follows 24 months of strict deadlines which have been systematically achieved starting with the plant site and construction camp civil excavation works, that were completed two months ahead of schedule with a total of 1.2 Mt of earth being excavated. The capacity of this plant is planned to be increased to 1.7 Mt/y by mid-2012.

Grade control drilling for the initial mining has been completed confirming the resource model’s evaluation, and based on this data an optimised mine plan has been finalised. Pre-strip, which was minimal owing to the outcrop of the reserves at surface, has been completed and mine production commenced towards the end of August. The mine planning is designed to optimise revenue by careful management of the cut off/cut over relationships of the orebody.