East Africans added new gold processing centre to cut down huge expenses on gold refining

Challenging South Africa’s supremacy in gold refining once again, East African nations add one more gold processing plant under their belt as Kenya is all saet to open a new factory.

Kenyan government has granted license to Kilimapesa Gold Company to prospect, mine and process the precious metal in Kilgoris, Trans Mara.

The company, a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange-listed Goldplat PLC, was awarded the lease which is valid for 21 years. Kilimapesa has invested about $6million in the venture.

The company is promising to earn the country hundreds of millions of shillings in gold exports. It expects to sell 5000 ounces of gold a year and has estimated that up to a million ounces of the precious metal may lie under the Kilgoris surface.

East Africans are adding new gold processing centre to cut down huge expenses on gold refining.

Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo had to take raw gold to South Africa for refining, which has made them lose huge amounts of money.

Uganda last year opened a $1.5 million refinery in the Great Lakes region, underscoring the Ugandan government’s efforts to ensure valued-addition on all commodities produced.

Uganda becomes the second country in the region to build such factory after the Russians had installed another one in Nairobi, Kenya last year. Kenya does not have a gold mine, neither has it discovered deposists.

Victoria Gold Star, based in Fifth Industrial area in Kampala, can refine 60 kilogrammes of gold daily.

In Tanzania there were efforts to build a refinery in 2004 by the central bank incorporating Mwananchi Gold company, but the plans were shelved.

Tanzania is leading in the region with many gold mines, which only represent 4 per cent of the country’s deposits.

It is number four in Africa in terms of gold production, after South Africa, Ghana and Mali. Most of its raw gold concentrates are exported to Japan and China for processing. - bullionstreet.com

Tags: Gold, Gold mining, Gold mining industry

Posted by admin on Nov 25 2011. Filed under Gold mining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry