Investors & Media
In the media
Shanta claws for Tanzanian gold
Source: SA Mining
Publication: samining.co.za
16 September 2005
Three well known South Africans - Richard Shead, George Bennett and Wally Vorwerk - form the core management of Shanta Gold, which has nine prospects in Tanzania. Julie Walker reports.
Shanta was listed on london's AIM last month after raising £3.5m through a placement of shares at 25p for a market worth of £15.5m. Since its establishment in 2001 by private investors, Shanta has spent $5m acquiring prospecting licences and on early exploration.
Shead, who guided East Daggafontein to great suc- cess before and introducing Tokyo Sexwale's Mvelaphanda as the principal shareholder, says that of the nine Shanta prospects, Singida and Mgusu look the most promising.
Mgusu is an advanced gold exploration project 14km away from AngloGold Ashanti's Geita mine. Early estimates are for 740 OOOoz of gold at a grade of 3.7g/t. Shanta is to invest $1.1 m on drilling an 6 OOOm this year.
The Singida prospect covers 2 945km2 in central Tanzania. It hosts an unexplored greenstone belt with shear-hosted mineralisation. Large-scale artisanal mining activity is conducted in the area and is encroaching onto Shanta's prospects: Shead says such miners are unable to recover gold from grades of below 15g/t. Shanta will carry out detailed geological mapping and systematic soil-sampling to generate targets for drilling. $1.8m is earmarked over two years for proving up Singida.
The other prospects are Simba Nguru, Katario (each of which SRK estimates to have the potential to host 300 OOOoz), Ikungu (185 OOOoz), Suguti, Songea and Chunya, and a slice of Tarime (80% Placer Dome).
Bennett, Shanta's CEO, says Tanzania is a stable country which has been one of Africa's biggest mining success stories over the past 10 years because of its investor- friendly operating environment. The country became Africa's third largest producer of gold in 2003 when it produced 1.3Moz. Precious stones are also mined, and two nickel/platinum projects are under way.
Shead, a non-executive director currently working out of London, says Shanta's aim is to maximise value for shareholders. This can be by adding value and on-selling prospects, joint-ventures, mining partnerships and so on. Nothing is pre-determined.