By DAVID MUGWE
In Summary
- ABG said that as a result of closing its Tulawaka gold mine in the Kagera region of Tanzania, it will have to declare some of its employees redundant, while others will be redeployed to other sites.
- According to disclosures contained in its latest annual report, the mining firm had about 5,668 employees with 5,230 in operations, 80 in exploration and 358 in administration for the year ended December 2012.
African Barrick Gold (ABG) will spend $23
million over a two-year period in closing a key Tanzanian mine after its
operations were stopped following declining production.
The London Stock Exchange-listed firm, which is
also cross-listed on the Dar es Salaam bourse, said that as a result of
closing its Tulawaka gold mine in the Kagera region of Tanzania, it will
have to declare some of its employees redundant, while others will be
redeployed to other sites.
According to disclosures contained in its latest
annual report, the mining firm had about 5,668 employees with 5,230 in
operations, 80 in exploration and 358 in administration for the year
ended December 2012.
ABG has said that activities to close down the
entire mine began after the operations were suspended in the first three
months of this year but that it was still too early to give an estimate
of the timeline for the closure.
“We ceased mining activities at Tulawaka in the
first quarter of this year and have now commenced closure activities. We
are still in discussions with the government regarding the closure,
which will dictate the ultimate time scale,” said ABG in response to
inquiries by The EastAfrican.
Even though ABG did not disclose how many
employees were working in each of its mines at the end of last year, 87
per cent of those who work in the Tulawaka gold mine are from Tanzania.
“We are currently working through the final plans
to assess those staff required to execute the closure of the mine and
those for whom opportunities are available elsewhere. There will be
redundancies following the appropriate consultation period,” said ABG.
The mine, which is an open pit gold mine with
underground operations, began production in June 2005. The mine’s
revenues dropped to $75.458 million for the period ended December 2012
from $131.435 million in 2011.
Last year its North Mara mine was the only one in
Tanzania which realised increased revenues of $310.549 million, from
$272.026 million as at the end of December 2011.
Revenues from the Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines
dropped to $393.347 million and $259.954 million respectively as at the
end of December 2012 from $429.528 million and $317.036 million as at
the end of December the previous year.
The disclosures to close down the Tulawaka mine
come at a time when AngloGold Ashanti, which is listed on the
Johannesburg, New York, Ghana and Australian stock exchanges, disclosed
plans to invest over Tsh478.6 billion ($300 million) in its Geita Gold
Mine over an eight-year period.
The mining company will use the money for the
acquisition of heavy duty trucks for its operations. The firms has an
open cast mine with three pits and currently employs 3,541 people
directly and indirectly and a further 155 casuals and apprentices.
Mining exports are important to Tanzania;
according to the central bank’s latest monthly economic review for the
period ended March this year, gold exports accounted for half of the
country’s total non-traditional exports. These non-traditional exports
include diamonds, manufactured goods, horticulture, edible vegetables,
fish and fish products.
The Bank of Tanzania said that the value of
non-traditional exports amounted to $4.182 billion for the period ended
February 2013, compared with $3.824 billion for the period ended
February 2012 and that with the exception of gold, all other
non-traditional exports increased.
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