The British-based mining company Xtract Resources announced on Monday that in the second quarter of the year it mined 42 per cent more gold than in the previous quarter at its Manica gold project.
The concession is situated four kilometres north of the central Mozambican town of Vila Manica, near the border with Zimbabwe.
Production of alluvial gold increased to 1,703 ounces. At today’s gold price of 1,242 US dollars an ounce, this would bring in a revenue of over two million dollars.
According to Xtract’s executive chairman, Colin Bird, “these results demonstrate an increasing trend in quarterly production. The first quarter was adversely affected by the rainy season and difficult processing conditions in the west. The second quarter was rid of the rains but was affected by difficult processing conditions as a result of fine gold and erratic gold occurrence”.
The company is paying production tax at a rate of six per cent of the value of total production. In the first quarter of this year, this came to 76,118 dollars. This rose to 104,448 dollars in the second quarter. In addition, land resettlement costs rose from 36,000 dollars in the first quarter to 62,437 dollars in the second quarter.
The Manica gold project covers 46 square kilometres and contains both hard rock and alluvial deposits.
Source: AIM
