Mills head to Kibali as development continues apace

Kinshasa, DRC, 24 October 2012 - Indicative of the steady progress being made with the development of the Kibali gold project, two giant 7 megawatt mills are currently being trucked halfway across Africa, from the east coast port of Mombasa to the mine site at Doko in the north east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Kibali mine will be one of the largest of its kind in Africa when it pours its first gold, scheduled for the end of 2013.

The mills, a key component of the production plant at Kibali, are each being transported in three massive sections. Each mill weighs 170 tonnes and is 9.5 metres long and 6.1 metres in diameter and when installed will be capable of milling a combined 7.2 million tonnes a year. Manufactured in Europe, they were landed at the port of Mombasa on 20 October and are due to arrive at the mine site at the end of November after a 1 800 kilometre road trip. The mills are expected to be set on their foundations at the plant early next year.

In the meantime, open pit mining is already underway at Kibali. In addition, the box cut for the project’s underground twin decline section is almost complete and in the fourth quarter of this year work is scheduled to start on the development of the twin declines and the sinking of the vertical shaft. The relocation programme, designed to rehouse the villagers from the mine area in the new model Kokiza village, is also progressing rapidly. New houses are being built at the rate of 45 a week and more than 1 000 families have been resettled to date. This means that the whole mine footprint has now effectively been cleared for development.

Kibali is being developed by project co-owner Randgold Resources, which will also operate the mine. Randgold already operates the Morila mine and the Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Mali as well as the Tongon mine in Côte d’Ivoire.

Randgold chief executive Mark Bristow said that once in production, Kibali would prove an enormous boon to the DRC, generating economic welfare through the payment of dividends and taxes to the State, which has a 10% stake in the project, as well as creating jobs and a demand for support services for local businesses. 

“It’s a great example of what can be achieved in Africa when an investor-friendly government partners with a mining company in a long-term commitment to the sustainable creation and sharing of wealth,” he said.