mining news
12
08.13
Gold Fields Limited has appointed Alfred Baku as
Senior Vice-President and Head of its West Africa
Region, the largest geographic contributor to the
Group’s production. Baku will also join the Group
Executive Committee. The appointment took effect
on 1 August 2013.
Baku, who was previously Vice-President of
Operations for the West Africa Region, is the first
Ghanaian to head up the region. He will be based
in Accra.
Having worked his way up through the ranks,
Baku is a seasoned Gold Fields employee with 19
years of mining experience with Group companies
in both Ghana and Australia. He first joined the Da-
mang gold mine in 1997 as Production Engineer and
became a member of Damang’s senior manage-
ment team in 2002. During his time in Australia, in
2005, he was Strategic Mine Planner at the Group’s
St Ives mine and Relieving Mine Manager at the
Agnew mine. In October 2008 he became the first
Ghanaian to be appointed as GM of Damang and in
2010 as GM of Tarkwa. In 2011 he was promoted to
Vice President of both Ghanaian operations.
Baku holds an MSc degree in Mining Engineer-
ing from the University of Mines and Technology in
Ghana. He also holds a Statutory Mine Manager’s
certificate and is a member of the Australian Insti-
tute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM).
G
hanaian appointed to head Gold Fields inWest Africa
Randgold Resources remains committed to
working with the government of Côte d’Ivoire
to build a sustainable mining industry in that
country by using its Tongon operation as a
platform from which to find and develop more
world-class gold deposits, the company’s
Chief Executive, Mark Bristow, said recently.
Bristow told a media briefing in Abidjan
that the current crisis in the global gold min-
ing industry, prompted by the downturn in
the gold price, was being exacerbated in
Côte d’Ivoire by continuing uncertainty over
the country’s mining code. Consequently
mining companies were withdrawing from
Côte d’Ivoire or delaying or downsizing their
projects there.
“Randgold has been in Côte d’Ivoire since
the early 90s and in that time we have seen
the country face and deal with some major
challenges. The government has already
made significant progress in restabilising the
country along with the other parties, and we
are confident that the country will also weath-
er the storm in the gold market if together we
reinforce the partnership between capital,
Australia’s Triton Minerals reports that the first
drill line in the initial drilling programme at the
Balama North project in Mozambique has in-
Turnaround programme at Tongon continues
labour and the state and renew our mutual
commitment to the long-term development of
this industry,” he said.
Randgold was demonstrating its own com-
mitment by upgrading the Tongon operation
and stepping up its exploration programmes
in the country, Bristow said. He noted that
the company had already mobilised on the
new exploration permits it had recently been
granted by the government.
Turning to Tongon, Bristow said after con-
tending with operational setbacks last year,
the mine was steadily improving its perfor-
mance as the turnaround programme initiat-
ed by management started showing results.
Key to the improvement has been the sta-
bilisation of the power supplied by the Ivorian
national grid. Tongon’s usage of grid power,
The Tongon gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire is steadily improving its performance (photo: Randgold Resources).
a major component of its cost profile, is now
nearing planned levels. Several projects to
drive costs down, increase mill throughput
and improve gold recovery are also currently
underway. The first of four new crushers has
just been installed and the milling circuit is
being upgraded. A gravity concentrate cir-
cuit is being installed in the process plant, as
well as an intensive leach reactor. In addition,
residence time in the concentrate treatment
pumpcell section has been increased.
“As a high volume producer, Tongon is par-
ticularly sensitive to efficiencies and input
costs. Its management is therefore continu-
ing to review every aspect of the business to
find further room for improvement,” Bristow
said. “Randgold as a whole is well placed
to handle the downturn in the gold price, as
our business has always been planned to be
profitable at lower price levels.”
Drill line intersects graphite at Balama North
tersected significant graphitic mineralisation.
“This is an exciting start to the drilling
programme,” says Triton Managing Director
Brad Boyle. “These initial results have ex-
ceeded our expectations given that this was
the secondary target on the programme, be-
hind the 3,75 km of extensive graphitic out-
cropping identified in the north-east portion
of Target 1 Area.”
Triton says these results continue to sup-
port its original interpretation of the graph-
ite mineralisation in the highly prospective
Balama area and are significant given “our
close proximity to the world class high grade
graphite deposit held by Syrah Resources
Limited.”
Triton commenced a reverse circulation
drilling programme on Licence 5365 in mid-
July 2013, in order to test the width and
continuity of a zone of graphite identified
and showing in a minor creek to the north of
Licence 5365.
