Mining Majors in Tanzania

AngloGold Ashanti Limited
Johannesburg, South Africa

In 2004, AngloGold Limited and Ashanti Goldfields Limited merged to form AngloGold Ashanti Limited (NYSE – AU), a global gold company with 20 operations on four continents, a substantial project pipeline and an extensive, worldwide exploration program. The new company is listed on the New York, Johannesburg, Ghanaian, London and Australian stock exchanges, as well as the Paris and Brussels bourses. AngloGold Ashanti is committed to continuously improving the performance of current assets through cost management and increased labor productivity, as well as seeking out value-adding growth opportunities through exploration and a disciplined acquisition strategy. The company is focused on generating competitive financial returns and on rewarding shareholders with semi-annual dividends. In 2004, AngloGold Ashanti's exploration activities continued to support the group's growth strategy, primarily to extend and replace existing production ounces by sustaining or growing existing operations and to discover new mines in new areas. Activities are focused on finding long-life, economic ore bodies by utilizing multi-disciplinary teams and appropriate state-of-the-art technology. Exploration continued to focus around the group's operations in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Guinea, Tanzania, Mali, Namibia, South Africa and the USA.

Tanzania

Geita Hill and Nyankanga West Property
Diamond drilling of the Geita Hill down dip extension mineralization continued in order to optimize the open-pit and potential underground interphase. Step-out drilling continued to the north-east at Geita Hill, tracing gold mineralization along strike and down dip to define areas for infill drilling. During 2004, the GGM exploration and geology team continued to add significant gold resources to the Geita mineral inventory from current mine extensions at Geita Hill and Nyankanga West, and intensified regional exploration for new gold deposits in the surrounding mine leases. Additional drilling information defined an additional 800,000 ounces in 2004. The company sees itself as an integral part of the local, regional and national community and behaves as a responsible member. Mining first started in August 1999 at Nyankanga Pit. To date almost 51 million cubic metres has been mined from Nyankanga, Lone Cone and Kukuluma Pits. The annual target is in excess of 23 million cubic metres. The Geita mine is located 80 kilometres south-west of the town of Mwanza. The geology is an Archaean mesothermal mainly BIF-hosted deposit. Mineralization is located where auriferous fluids, which are interpreted to have moved along shears often on BIF-diorite contacts, reacted with the BIF. Some lower-grade mineralization can occur in the diorite as well (usually in association with BIF-hosted mineralization), and approximately 20% of the gold is hosted in the diorite. Mining at Geita is undertaken by standard open mining methods, using drill and blast followed by loading of 100 tonne trucks by 10 hydraulic excavators. This multi-pit operation has a 6 million tonne per annum carbon in leach plant. During the year production increased by 72% to 570,000 ounces, largely as a result of the acquisition of the remaining 50% of Geita on 26 April 2004. Cost of production is $250 per ounce. Exploration from 2005 will focus on the identification and generation of resources to the inferred category, from largely regional targets developed in 2004. The life-of-mine production schedule will dictate as and when these inferred resources are converted into reserves. The underground potential of the Geita Trend will be investigated once the optimization of the open-pit/underground interface has been completed.
 
 

Barrick Gold (NYSE – ABX) is a leading international gold mining company, with a portfolio of operating mines and development projects located in the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Tanzania. In 2004, the Company’s 12 operating mines produced about 5 million ounces of gold, at a cash cost of $212 per ounce, the lowest cash cost of all senior producers. The Company increased its reserves by over 3 million ounces during 2004, with gold mineral reserves now at 89 million ounces. The Company has successfully completed the construction of the Tulawaka, Lagunas Norte and Veladero mines in 2005. These new mines and projects are expected to add significant amounts of production at low cash costs to achieve the Company’s aggressive growth profile by 2007. This robust pipeline of development projects is due to the Company’s ongoing commitment to exploration, even in times of lower gold prices. Barrick has the gold mining industry’s strongest balance sheet, which positions the Company to take prompt advantage of attractive development, exploration and acquisition opportunities as they arise. Barrick shares are traded on the Toronto, New York, London and Swiss Stock Exchanges, and the Euronext-Paris.

Tanzania

Bulyanhulu Mine
The Bulyanhulu Mine is located in northwest Tanzania, East Africa, approximately 55 kilometers south of Lake Victoria and approximately 150 kilometers from the city of Mwanza. The mine is an underground trackless operation using long hole and drift-and-fill as its principal stoping methods. Ore reserves are accessed via a surface shaft and an internal ramp system. In 2004, the mine produced 349,864 ounces of gold at a total cash cost of $283 per ounce. In 2005, production is expected to be between 320,000 and 325,000 ounces of gold at an average total cash cost of between $340 and $350 per ounce. Based on existing reserves of 19 million ounces and current production capacity, the expected minimum remaining mine life is approximately 24 years. At the time of acquisition in 1999, proven and probable mineral resources were approximately 3.6 million ounces of gold. At the end of 2004, Bulyanhulu had 19 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves. Drill results to date indicate that grades improve at depth. The current reserves are concentrated on one reef but significant exploration potential has been identified on two other reefs on the property. During 2004, Barrick re-activated an exploration-drilling program at Bulyanhulu. The objective of the program was to add more than 0.5 million ounces to the resources/reserves of the mine. In late July 2004, drilling began on the Reef 1 deep western down-plunge extension; Reef 2 down-dip extension; and Reef 2 eastern strike extension. At Bulyanhulu, the geology consists of mafic volcanic flows overlain by a series of pyroclastics and ash tuffs. Argillite is present at the contact between the mafic and felsic rocks. The gold, silver and copper mineralization on the property occurs in mineralized “reefs” or quartz veins localized along steeply dipping northwest striking structures, generally localized in the argillite units. The zone strikes 310 degrees and dips steeply to the northeast. The mineralization has been defined over a strike length of 5 kilometers and averages 2 to 3 meters wide. The most significant structure discovered on the property to date is Reef 1, which contains the bulk of the mineral reserves defined to date.

Tulawaka Mine
The Tulawaka Mine in Tanzania was obtained by Barrick through the acquisition of Pangea Goldfields Inc. in June 2000. Tulawaka is a 70/30 joint venture between Pangea Goldfields Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barrick, and Northern Mining Explorations Ltd. The site is located approximately 1,000 kilometers from Dar es Salaam and 120 kilometers west of Barrick’s Bulyanhulu Mine. The Tulawaka Mine began production in the first quarter of 2005. The mine is an open-pit operation, recovering half the gold with gravity separation technology and the balance from conventional carbon-in-leach technology. The mine is expected to produce between 75,000 and 80,000 ounces in 2005 to Barrick’s account at an average cash cost of $270-$275 per ounce. The mine life is expected to be 4 years, producing an average of 70,000-75,000 ounces annually (70% share) at an average cash cost of $170-$180 per ounce. The Company’s 70% share of Tulawaka contains approximately 382,000 ounces of gold in proven and probable reserves. The Tulawaka East gold deposit is hosted in a complex upper greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphic terrain comprised of metasediments, including a minor component of metasilicate-iron formation and metagabbro dykes or sills. The local stratigraphy has been folded into a large-scale Z-shaped fold that plunges to the south. The anticline portion of the fold has been cut by a thrust fault sub-parallel to the south-dipping fold axial plane. Thrust faulting has provided the dilation required for the injection of gold bearing quartz veins and associated quartz-feldspar porphyry intrusions. Gold occurs principally as free gold within quartz veins or stockworks, often associated with felsic intrusives. Pyrite and arsenopyrite occur in minor quantities but do not contain significant gold. The mineralization is hosted in sediments metamorphosed to greenschist and amphibolite facies. Mineralization is contained in saprolite, which is itself overlain by a discontinuous laterite zone that also contains detrital or chemically remobilized gold. At least five gold-bearing quartz vein systems occur within the Tulawaka area. Among these, the East Zone system contains the most economically significant gold mineralization identified to date and the Tulawaka project is based on development of the East Zone. The East Zone mineralization has a northwesterly strike distance of approximately 1 kilometer and dips at angles of 40° to 65° to the northeast. The gold bearing quartz vein in the East Zone ranges in thickness from 60 centimeters to 4 meters.