BAK
JF-Expert Member
- Feb 11, 2007
- 124,790
- 288,165
By Elisha Magolanga
Dar es Salaam. The Golden Pride mine is closing down next month, after 13 years of continuous operation that produced about $3.3 billion (Sh5.2 trillion) worth of gold at current prices.The closure of the Tabora-based mine, which will start with shutting down pit production in January, is a month behind schedule and will be extended to June to allow the completion of processing the gold ore.
The minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, confirmed to The Citizen in a telephone interview that the closure was being carried out but declined to offer more details.
I’m not in the office... I am on holiday, your question needs more details that have to be gathered from other departments. Look for me next week and I will be in a good position to give more details, he told The Citizen on Monday.
But former minister for Energy and Minierals William Ngeleja told Parliament last July that a review of the draft plan for closing the Golden Pride mine was completed according to the law and the mine was expected to close late in 2012 if no additional sediments were discovered.
The managing director of Resolute Mine Limited could not be reached, but a senior officer at the mine who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not the spokesperson of the company, confirmed about the beginning of the closure.
It is true we are closing next month. Our contractors and the mine have already started laying off workers, he said.
About 14 Golden Pride mine pit production workers have been given redundancy letters with termination being effective by the end of December. Workers in the processing plant, maintenance and security as well as administration will be retained until the full closure is over by mid-next year, he said.
The main contractor, Caspian, is also laying off 75 workers. A total of 450 workers are employed by the mine and its contractors, including Caspian, Mason, Omega Security, Hyspec and BME.
The Caspian dump truck operator, Mr Katale Chombo, told The Citizen yesterday that the company has announced that it would close production on December 31 this year. This paper tried to get the company’s public relations officer to verify the information without success.
As a way to reduce the production force, recently both Resolute and Caspian have been giving redundancy letters to their employees, with 75 Caspian workers being given the letters in September. They include machine operators, techniciana, security guards and other workers at the plant.
Some of us have already been paid our golden handshake... we are making final touches on pit production and we have been told we will not be digging any more. My colleagues have started looking for jobs in other mines like North Mara, Buzwagi and Tulawaka, an excavator operator who identified himself as Paschal Masanja told The Citizen in a telephone interview.
The Golden Pride Gold Mine is an open pit mine owned by the Australian miner Resolut. It was the first modern commercial gold mining project developed in Tanzania since independence. Its construction was completed in November 1998 at the cost of $48 million. Located in Nzega District, Tabora Region, the mine was opened on February 7, 1999 by former President Benjamin Mkapa.
It was scheduled to close this month after the first closure set for 2005 was extended following an upgrade in 2002 from a through put of 1.6 million to 2.6 million tonnes, at a cost of $10.6 million.
After the mine’s closure the Sh15 billion environment rehabilitation project will follow suit. The site will be handed over to the Tanzania Prisons Service that will turn it into a correctional facility.
The environmental performance at Golden Pride continues to improve. The firms tree nursery produced its one millionth seedling this year and completion of rehabilitation on the south waste rock dump and north east backfill will go ahead, the Golden Pride official said.
Other gold mining companies followed suit by opening other five modern, commercial and foreign-owned gold mines by Barrick Gold and AnglodGold Ashanti. These include Bulyanhulu, Geita, Tulawaka, Buzwagi and North Mara.
The first mine’s closure comes at a time when Tanzanians are still debating on whether gold mining in the country has amounted to a resource curse.
According to the chairman of the Public Organisations Accounts Committee (Poac), Mr Zitto Kabwe, Tanzania has only received minimal gains from mining.
Delivering a lecture at the National Defence College in the city last week on challenges and prospects of the mining sector in Tanzania, he said:
Despite Tanzania having abundant wealth of minerals, the sector which has been growing on an average rate of 10.2 per cent since 2000, only contributes 3.3 per cent to the GDP in 2011 and employs just about one per cent of the total labour force.
He added that between 1998 and 2011, the total value of minerals exported from Tanzania was $11.13 billion. But in the same period the total Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the mining sector was only $3 billion while the total government revenue from the sector was $445.2 million. (peanuts)
The Citizen: Wednesday, 26 December 2012 at 22:34
Dar es Salaam. The Golden Pride mine is closing down next month, after 13 years of continuous operation that produced about $3.3 billion (Sh5.2 trillion) worth of gold at current prices.The closure of the Tabora-based mine, which will start with shutting down pit production in January, is a month behind schedule and will be extended to June to allow the completion of processing the gold ore.
The minister for Energy and Minerals, Prof Sospeter Muhongo, confirmed to The Citizen in a telephone interview that the closure was being carried out but declined to offer more details.
I’m not in the office... I am on holiday, your question needs more details that have to be gathered from other departments. Look for me next week and I will be in a good position to give more details, he told The Citizen on Monday.
But former minister for Energy and Minierals William Ngeleja told Parliament last July that a review of the draft plan for closing the Golden Pride mine was completed according to the law and the mine was expected to close late in 2012 if no additional sediments were discovered.
The managing director of Resolute Mine Limited could not be reached, but a senior officer at the mine who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not the spokesperson of the company, confirmed about the beginning of the closure.
It is true we are closing next month. Our contractors and the mine have already started laying off workers, he said.
About 14 Golden Pride mine pit production workers have been given redundancy letters with termination being effective by the end of December. Workers in the processing plant, maintenance and security as well as administration will be retained until the full closure is over by mid-next year, he said.
The main contractor, Caspian, is also laying off 75 workers. A total of 450 workers are employed by the mine and its contractors, including Caspian, Mason, Omega Security, Hyspec and BME.
The Caspian dump truck operator, Mr Katale Chombo, told The Citizen yesterday that the company has announced that it would close production on December 31 this year. This paper tried to get the company’s public relations officer to verify the information without success.
As a way to reduce the production force, recently both Resolute and Caspian have been giving redundancy letters to their employees, with 75 Caspian workers being given the letters in September. They include machine operators, techniciana, security guards and other workers at the plant.
Some of us have already been paid our golden handshake... we are making final touches on pit production and we have been told we will not be digging any more. My colleagues have started looking for jobs in other mines like North Mara, Buzwagi and Tulawaka, an excavator operator who identified himself as Paschal Masanja told The Citizen in a telephone interview.
The Golden Pride Gold Mine is an open pit mine owned by the Australian miner Resolut. It was the first modern commercial gold mining project developed in Tanzania since independence. Its construction was completed in November 1998 at the cost of $48 million. Located in Nzega District, Tabora Region, the mine was opened on February 7, 1999 by former President Benjamin Mkapa.
It was scheduled to close this month after the first closure set for 2005 was extended following an upgrade in 2002 from a through put of 1.6 million to 2.6 million tonnes, at a cost of $10.6 million.
After the mine’s closure the Sh15 billion environment rehabilitation project will follow suit. The site will be handed over to the Tanzania Prisons Service that will turn it into a correctional facility.
The environmental performance at Golden Pride continues to improve. The firms tree nursery produced its one millionth seedling this year and completion of rehabilitation on the south waste rock dump and north east backfill will go ahead, the Golden Pride official said.
Other gold mining companies followed suit by opening other five modern, commercial and foreign-owned gold mines by Barrick Gold and AnglodGold Ashanti. These include Bulyanhulu, Geita, Tulawaka, Buzwagi and North Mara.
The first mine’s closure comes at a time when Tanzanians are still debating on whether gold mining in the country has amounted to a resource curse.
According to the chairman of the Public Organisations Accounts Committee (Poac), Mr Zitto Kabwe, Tanzania has only received minimal gains from mining.
Delivering a lecture at the National Defence College in the city last week on challenges and prospects of the mining sector in Tanzania, he said:
Despite Tanzania having abundant wealth of minerals, the sector which has been growing on an average rate of 10.2 per cent since 2000, only contributes 3.3 per cent to the GDP in 2011 and employs just about one per cent of the total labour force.
He added that between 1998 and 2011, the total value of minerals exported from Tanzania was $11.13 billion. But in the same period the total Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the mining sector was only $3 billion while the total government revenue from the sector was $445.2 million. (peanuts)
The Citizen: Wednesday, 26 December 2012 at 22:34
