Griffin Mining suspends Caijiaying gold mine to investigate contractor deaths

Africa operating gold and platinum miner Goldplat (LON:GDP) said its South African and Ghanaian gold recovery processing operations continued to perform strongly with the company “making progress on all fronts” and looking for acquisitions in its focus areas.

The company has secured further stockpiles in South Africa via an agreement with Simmer and Jack to buy 20,000 tonnes of raw material and successfully commissioned intensive cyanidation plant in that country to cut costs and improve the cash flow of the operation. In Ghana, initiatives to increase production at Goldplat’s processing plant are nearing completion.  The assay laboratory shipped from South Africa arrived at Goldplat’s operation in Tema in Ghana in late July.

Goldplat has an expansion plan in place to up production at Kilimapesa in Kenya to an expected range of 5,000 to 6,000 oz (ounces) per year, also expecting to finalise the mining lease over the project shortly. Kenya's National Electricity Grid  has now reached  the mine, which will reduce operating costs and Kilimapesa will no longer be dependent on diesel generator power.

In Burkina Faso, Goldplat is currently conducting a trenching programme at the Nyieme gold project, which will recommence after the rainy season in August. A diamond drilling programme over the area previously drilled by Sanu Exploration is scheduled to start on 16 August.

The potential acquisition targets studied by the company include mining projects in Ghana and by-products gold recovery opportunities in Burkina Faso.

Goldplat said it was “ideally positioned” to capitalize on the high gold prices with the Kenya license due to be issued and good performance at its two recovery plants in South Africa and Ghana. The Nyieme project in Burkina Faso will be in focus for Goldplat, which is looking to fast track its development to define its economic potential.

“We are making solid progress on all fronts...in  terms of expansion, we are actively  looking for further assets both in the junior  gold  mining  arena  in  Southern  Africa,  and  through additional gold by-product  opportunities in  the West  Africa region,  that we believe have the potential to materially impact the Company's performance moving forward,” said chief executive Demetri Manolis.

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/19866/goldplat-operations-perform-in-line-looks-at-acquisitions-in-africa-19866.html